
LLING; 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






BUSINESS BOYS' LIBRARY.— II. 

« 

The Travelling Law-School 

AND 

FAMOUS TRIALS 

(First Lessons in Government and Law) 



BY 

BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT 



"In order to succeed in life you must resolve to carry into your work 
a fulness of knowledge."— President£absi&i t 




BOSTON 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN STREET 



\ 



Copyright, 1884. 
By D. Lothrop & Company. 









CONTENTS. 

THE TRAVELLING LAW SCHOOL. 

I. The State-house at Boston 7 

II. Things one can own 15 

III. The City Streets ; and the Depot .... 24 

IV. People whom we meet 32 

V. The Ride to New York 42 

VI. Railroad Travel 51 

VII. In New York and around it 61 

VIII. Bargains and Business ...... 70 

IX. To Philadelphia, and What we saw there . . 79 

X. Money and Banks ....... 87 

XI. In Washington City 95 

XII. Choosing Officers 104 

FAMOUS TRIALS. 

I. Aunt Sylvia's Will : Forgery 7 

II. Colvin and the Booms : Confessions ... 18 

III. The Story of Jennie Diver : Stealing ... 26 

IV. Louis Victor's Sufferings: Photographs . . 34 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

V. An unfortunate Frenchman : Circumstantial Evi- 
dence • 43 

VI. ' Martin Guerre and Arnauld Du Tilh : Personal 

Identity • 5° 

VII. De Berenger and Cochrane : Swindling . . 59 

VIII. Andre and Mackenzie : Courts-martial . . .71 

IX. Elizabeth Canning : Direct Testimony ... 79 

X. Trial of Madame Rachel : Spurious Cosmetics . 89 

XI. Trial of Hopley : Cruelty to Children ... 98 

XII. Joan of Arc: Witchcraft ..... 107' 



THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 



I.— THE STATE-HOUSE AT BOSTON. 

" National powers and State powers " is an inccmplete classification. Our 
fathers carefully divided all governmental powers into three classes ; one they 
gave to the States ; another to the nation ; but the third great class, compris- 
ing the most precious of all powers, they refused to confer on the State or nation, 
but reserved to themselves. Garfield — Chips from tlie White House, p. 443. 



A 



LMOST everywhere in America there are three 
governments. One good way for young citi- 
zens to learn about them is to take a journey, observ- 
ing, on the way, whether the things they pass are 
subject to one government or to another. The State- 
house in Boston will be a good place for beginning 
such a journey; for in visiting a State-house we learn 
about the State government. Then if we travel to 
Washington, we shall there see something of what is 
done by the government of the United States. While 
travelling, instead of watching for beautiful scenery 
or remarkable buildings, we must look for the changes 

in governments and laws. 

7 



8 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

" Please, sir, may girls go ? " 

Certainly. They will be very welcome. They 
shall- have seats by the windows and ask all the ques- 
tions they wish. Even if girls should never vote, 
they need to know about governments and laws, in 
order to understand the news they read, and to con- 
verse with gentlemen about " politics," and to manage 
their own property. 

Now for the reason for having three governments : ' 
It is that they may take care of different things. We 
might almost say that the United States government 
— or, as it is sometimes called, the Federal or Na- 
tional government — has charge of the largest things ; 
the State governments, of medium-sized things ; while 
small matters are regulated by some kind of corpo- 
ration. The words small and large are not very good. 
A letter, folded in its envelope, is small ; yet letters 
are managed by the United States. A park like 
Fairmount, or Central, or the Boston Common, is 
large, yet it is managed by the corporation of the 
city. But the idea is, that although any one letter is 
small, yet the business of carrying letters over the 
whole country and sending them to foreign lands is 



THE STATE-HOUSE AT BOSTON. 9 

a very large thing; too large for a corporation or 
even a State. Grown persons, instead of using 
" large " and " small," would perhaps say, The 
United States government controls national subjects, 
and the State those which are of general interest to 
one community; while merely local affairs are directed 
by some corporation. On our journey we shall better 
see what this means. 

Now our party is gathered at the State-house. 
What can we learn about State governments by ex- 
amining a State-house ? A great deal. Any State- 
house is built to provide rooms for doing the business 
of the State government. There are now thirty- 
eight States, and each needs a "house" for its 
business. The pictures of these houses would appear 
very different ; but the arrangements of the rooms 
and the nature of the business done in them is much 
the same. The most important rooms are those of the 
legislature. The legislature is composed of gentlemen 
elected by the people throughout the State, to meet at 
the State-house and make laws for the State. They 
are entirely distinct from the United States govern- 
ment. Part of them are called " the Senate," the other 



10 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

part " the House of Representatives," or sometimes 
"the Assembly." The Senate and the House have 
each a room in the State-house, arranged much like 
a school-room, but larger and more elegant. The 
floors of these rooms are occupied with handsome 
desks and chairs, at which the members of the legis- 
lature sit, listening to each other's speeches, or read- 
ing or writing — much like the pupils in a school. At 
a large desk on a raised platform sits a president or 
speaker, and near him are clerks ; looking like a 
principal and assistant teachers. There usually is 
what is not so common in school-rooms — a gallery 
for visitors. Whenever any person wishes a new 
State law he must wait until the legislature is in 
session (for legislatures have vacations, as do schools), 
and must bring it to be proposed to the members of 
the House or the Senate, sitting in one of these halls. 
A written paper proposed for a law is called a " bill." 
A clerk will read the bill, so that the members can 
hear it ; and they, if they like it, will give it to a 
" committee " for examination. A committee in a 
legislature resembles a class in a school : it consists 
of perhaps five, or seven, or nine members, who carry 



THE STATE-HOUSE AT BOSTON. II 

the proposed law into a side room like a recitation 
room, and there study it. The purpose of their study- 
ing is to judge whether the law will be a good one. 
Afterwards they " report " to the other members in 
the large hall what they have learned about the bill, 
and whether or not they recommend it. Any mem- 
ber who pleases may make a speech in favor of the 
bill or against it. Then the president or speaker 
says: " All who are in favor of this bill say 'Aye;' 
contrary minded, ' No.' " If enough members vote 
"Aye," the bill is u passed" along to the members 
sitting in the other hall, where it is discussed and 
voted upon in the same way. If enough members in 
the other house vote " Aye," the bill is " passed" 
along to the Governor. This is what is meant by 
saying " a bill was passed." 

The Governor is the chief officer of the State. He 
has a spacious room in the capitol, near the legislative 
halls, and whenever a bill has been passed it is brought 
to him. If he thinks it good, he marks it " approved ; " 
and by this mark it becomes a law. Besides approv- 
ing laws, each Governor has a great deal of business 
to manage for his State. He can forbid laws which 



12 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

he sees to be unwise ; and can pardon criminals and 
set them free. He appoints various officers and 
gives orders ; and if any officer neglects his duty, the 
Governor calls him to account. He does not take 
regular vacations like the legislature, but attends to 
business at any time ; and very responsible and diffi- 
cult business it is. 

In any State-house there are, besides the legislative 
halls, the committee rooms and the " executive cham- 
ber," as the Governor's room is often called, and many 
other business rooms. The most interesting one is the 
State library. One can enjoy many days in examin- 
ing and reading the curious books.' There are also, 
usually, some paintings, statues and curiosities : thus 
at the State-house in Boston are statues of Washing- 
ton, Webster and Mann ; busts of Adams, Lincoln 
and Andrew; and flags carried by Massachusetts 
regiments in the civil war. And if we ascend to the 
great gilded dome, there is a beautiful view of Bos- 
ton and of the country around. Even persons who 
are not interested in laws and governments take 
pleasure in visiting a State-house, as there is so much 
to be seen which is elegant and curious. 



THE STATE-HOUSE AT BOSTON. 1 3 

One of the pleasures of educated persons in journey- 
ing abroad lies in comparing foreign forms of govern- 
ment with ours. Probably no European country has 
adopted the three governments as distinctly as we 
have. Great Britain is formed by a union of king- 
doms — England, Scotland, Ireland — somewhat like 
our States, and has colonies somewhat like our Ter- 
ritories. Parliament is like our Congress, and the 
three kingdoms send representatives to it ; but then 
they have no legislatures of their own. The large 
colonies have legislatures, but are not represented in 
Parliament. England has counties, cities and towns, 
however : indeed, it was from these that America 
took the idea. 

Switzerland strongly resembles the United States. 
There is a Diet resembling our Congress, and there 
are Cantons, like our States. But the Cantons differ 
much more than do our States in their ways of man- 
aging their local governments. In the Diet the Can- 
tons are represented in a manner which, while giving 
in the House deputies similar to our representatives, 
in proportion to the number of voters, equalizes the 
Cantons in the Senate. But in the Cantons them- 



14 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

selves there are all varieties of republican governments. 
In some Cantons the voters elect only the officers of 
the great council ; the grand council chooses the 
chief executive, who is called Avoyer, Laridaman, 
or Burgomaster, and corresponds to our Governor. 
In some Cantons the laws framed by the legislative 
assembly must be submitted to the people. In 
others, the people are periodically convened to vote 
directly on the public business, much as is the way 
in a New England town meeting. 



Note. — For description of the English form of government, read Stubb's 
"Constitutional History of England," "Anecdotal History of Parliament, " 
Green's " Shorter History of the English People." " Switzerland," page 553 
( Lothrop's " Library of Entertaining History ") gives a clear account of the 
Swiss Diet and Cantons, 



II.— THINGS ONE CAN OWN. 

M Property isthe fruit of labor; property is desirable, is a positive good in the 
world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and 
hence is just encouragement to independence and enterprise." Lincoln : 
Chips from the White House* page 262. 

PROPERTY is a difficult word. One way of 
learning its meanings is to read them in diction- 
aries and cyclopaedias. For the Travelling Law- 
school a better way is to take notice of the various 
kinds of property we see. A city like Boston con- 
tains a great many different kinds. And all useful 
things are not "property." Air is not considered 
property, neither is light ; though they are absolutely 
necessary. There was once a large and expensive 
store built by the side of a beautiful garden. It was 
somewhat dark and close, and the shop-keeper cut 
some windows in the side wall to let light and air 
into the store from above the garden. The owner 

*5 



1 6 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

of the garden asked the court to forbid this. " I can- 
not/' said the judge; "the shop-keeper is only cut- 
ting holes in his own wall ; he has the right to do that." 

Said the garden owner, " But he is stealing the 
light and air above my garden." 

"No," said the judge, " the light and air over your 
garden are not your property. While they are over 
it you can use them; but if they fly off and enter 
your neighbor's windows it is not stealing for him to 
use them." 

Then the gardener returned home, and began 
building a wall on the edge of the garden, up — up — 
till it was covering the windows. -The owner of the 
store then asked the court to forbid this wall. " I 
cannot," said the judge; "he is only building a 
wall on his own land ; he has the right to do that." 

Said the garden owner, " You decided that I had 
the right to cut windows." 

" So you have," said the judge. "You have the 
right to have windows on your land, and he has the 
right to build a wall on his." 

" But he is stealing the light and air from my win- 
dows." 



THINGS ONE CAN OWN. 1 7 

"It is not stealing/' said the judge, "to obstruct 
light or air, for neither is property/' 

If this had happened in England, the judge would 
have asked, " How old are the windows ? " And 
if they had been built more than twenty years he 
would have called them " ancient lights," and would 
have forbidden the building of the wall against them. 
But in most parts of this country ancient windows 
have no better right than those newly built. 

Probably the chief reason why air and light are 
not property is that there is no need and no way 
of doing either up in parcels so that any par- 
ticular quantity can be kept separate. A chief 
idea of property is, so?nething that can be measured in 
quantities for sale. This cannot be done with nat- 
ural air and light: how then can they be property? 
But the gas used in cities for lighting is made in a 
great retort, and runs in large pipes underground to 
the various buildings, and in each building it runs 
through a meter which measures every cubic foot, and 
then through small pipes to burners in the rooms ; 
and there, when a screw is turned, it rushes out and 
one can light it with a match. A man once contrived 



l8 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

to get gas for his house without paying, by boring a 
hole into the large gas-pipe and inserting a small 
pipe which brought some into his house. This house 
was in Ashland street in Boston. The gas company 
prosecuted the man for stealing. Said he, " It is not 
stealing, for gas is only a kind of air : now air is not 
property." 

But the judges said that air manufactured to be 
burned and kept stored in tanks or pipes is property, 
and taking it without leave is stealing. If two divers 
went down, carrying each a tank of air to breathe, 
the air which each carried would be his property ; 
the other could not lawfully take it from him. Some 
person has said that he has invented a kind of wall 
paper which during the daytime will absorb the light 
and at night will give it out ; the wall will shine so 
that one can read by its light. When this is accom- 
plished the light stored in a roll of such paper will be 
property. 

Is water property ? When it has been gathered in 
casks or in bottles, as Congress water is, so that it 
can be carried to and fro, it is. When it is running 
in a stream, it is not; the person who owns the land 



THINGS ONE CAN OWN. 1 9 

through which the stream runs has the right to use 
it : for example, he can build a clam and use the 
water to turn a mill-wheel ; but he must let it run on 
its way down the stream, so that all who live below 
can use it for their mills if they desire. In winter, 
when the water of great rivers and ponds freezes, the 
ice is free to every one until some one has begun 
gathering it ; as fast as any one takes particular ice it 
becomes his property. One winter some ice gath- 
erers selected a spot on the frozen surface of the 
Mississippi where the ice was clear and good, and 
marked corners with stakes, and plowed a line 
around a quantity which they thought would be 
enough to fill their ice-house. They placed a watch- 
man in charge of it until a good day came for cutting 
it into blocks and carting it home. They then went 
to cut it; but a rival dealer accompanied by fifty 
men armed with clubs, ice-picks and pistols, came to 
the place, drove away the first party, and cut and car- 
ried away the ice themselves. When they were prose- 
cuted, they said, "Ice is not property.' , 

But the court said, " The surface of a great river is 
free to all ; and whoever marks a plot of ice for mar- 



20 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

ket becomes entitled to it as the first comer." 
The land, and the buildings of which we see so 
many in a great city, are property ; and this kind is 
so important that it is called real estate, or real prop- 
erty. The land belongs to some owner, even in 
wild and desolate places where there are no fences 
nor any cultivation. If not a part of any one's farm, 
still there is some one who owns it, or it belongs to 
one of the governments ; the town or county, or the 
State, or the United States. No one has the right to 
take land for his own as he may ice in a river, merely 
because it is wild and unoccupied. One who tries to 
do this is called a "squatter." The land surely be- 
longs to some one, although to find the true owner 
is sometimes difficult. So many people wish to live 
in the cities that the land becomes very valuable and 
the buildings are placed very close together. The 
buildings are considered part of the land, because 
they are built on foundations planted in the ground, 
and cannot be moved away. Property which can be 
moved from place to place, such as the furniture in 
the houses, the merchandise in the stores, and the ve- 
hicles in the streets, is called personal property, or 



THINGS ONE CAN OWN. 21 

sometimes chattels. Almost any grown person can 
explain about owning land or buildings, and about 
hiring them ; also about chattels and how these are 
bought and sold. One curious rule is that the real 
property is subject to the law of the State where it 
lies ; the land and the buildings in Boston must be 
sold or hired according to the law of Massachusetts, 
no matter where the owner lives. But chattels or 
personal property are subject to the law of the State 
where the owner of them resides. Another curious 
rule is, that if one wishes to sell real property it is 
necessary that he should give a deed. When chattels 
are sold, no written paper is necessary ; for example, 
one can enter a store, select an article, pay the price, 
and, if the merchant delivers the thing to him to take 
away, or sends it home, it becomes the property of 
the buyer merely by this "delivery." Not so when 
one wishes to buy houses and lands. He needs a 
deed. A deed is a long paper, partly printed and 
partly written, which gives the names of the seller 
and the buyer, and describes the land very carefully, 
and the buildings, and says that they have been sold 
for such and such a price. So also if one wishes to 



22 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

hire a farm or a house, unless the time is very short, 
he must take from the owner a lease stating very dis- 
tinctly what property he is to hire, how long he may 
keep it, and what the rent is to be. 

Are animals property? There are two kinds. 
Domestic animals, such as horses, cows, sheep, hens, 
are property. In some States dogs are property, in 
some they are not. Wild beasts and birds in the 
woods, or fishes in the sea, do not belong to any one ; 
if, however, a person catches one it is his property 
for the time being ; but if it escapes and is at large 
again, the property of the one who first caught it is 
lost, and any one may take it. If my horse strays 
away he belongs to me wherever he gees. But if I 
have a menagerie and the lion breaks loose, any one 
may shoot him. Whether any one may catch and 
keep him is, perhaps, a knotty question. A hunter 
once shot at a deer in the woods and wounded it. 
The deer ran and the hunter with his dog followed 
until night. Next morning the hunter resumed the 
chase and tracked the deer to a spot where it had 
been killed by another man. The court said that the 
creature belonged to the hunter who killed it at last, 



THINGS ONE CAN OWN. 23 

for it had escaped from the other. In England a 
man lately set a carrier pigeon free, hoping it would 
fly home as he had trained it to do. On its way 
some person shot it, and, when he was sued, said, 
" That bird was not property, for the owner had 
turned it loose. " But the judge said, " It is the na- 
ture of a carrier pigeon to fly home ; the owner did 
not turn it loose because he did not value it, but to 
let it fly home ; and it was property while on the 
way." 



III.— THE CITY STREETS ; AND THE DEPOT. 



"The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell from which they 
were evolved, was in the New England town, and the vital force, the inform- 
ing soul of the town, was the Town Meeting, which, for all local concerns, 
was king, lords and commons in all. " — Garfield : Chips from the White- 
house t p. 458. 



THE Travelling Law-school is now walking 
through Boston Common and along the city- 
streets, on its way to the railroad depot. One 
pleasure in teaching American" Little Citizens is 
that they know so many things at the start. All 
girls and boys know well enough what a city is, and 
that a city has laws of its own. Therefore the 
teacher will simply ask that one or two of the boys 
will keep watch for any city law which the party 
may pass ; and meantime he will relate the story of 
the two dancing bears in Madison. The man who 
owned these bears brought them to the city of Madi- 
son to exhibit them. But he had learned that in any 

24 



THE CITY STREETS; AND THE DEPOT. 25 

city there are laws about exhibitions, and that he 
must get leave before he could open a show. There- 
fore he went to the mayor's office and asked for a 
"permit." Every city has a mayor, some man 
whom the people choose to administer the city laws. 
His office is the place for obtaining permission to do 
anything extraordinary in a city ; except that in very 
large cities there are several officers instead of only one. 
At the mayor's office the clerks gave the showman a 
permit. He then led his bears upon the sidewalk of 
the chief street, and told them to dance. They be- 
gan, and a crowd gathered to see. Just then a man 
in a buggy, driving a spirited, skittish horse, came 
around the corner. When the horse saw the bears 
he was frightened ; he ran away, the buggy was up- 
set, and the driver was thrown out and badly hurt. 
The driver brought a lawsuit against the city, to be 
paid for being hurt. And the judges said that if the 
city officers had been so foolish as to tell the show- 
man he might let his bears dance on the sidewalk of 
that crowded street, the city ought to pay damages ; 
bears ought to be exhibited in a hired hall, or in a 
tent on some vacant lot. Thus we see that there 



26 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

must be rules in a city very different from those in 
the country. In the wild woods bears may roam 
where they please. And if a farmer should catch 
one and get a chain around him he might lead 
him across the fields to his house without harm 
being done. But in a city there is need of laws and 
officers to say exactly where and how bears — or 
other dangerous things, such as steam-engines, or 
gunpowder — may be carried or used. 

" Please, sir, there is a city law." 

"Where ? Yes; that is one." 



KEEP OFF THE GRASS. 



It would be absurd for a legislature at a State- 
house to pass a law ordering the people to keep off 
the grass everywhere in the State. In country 
places walking in the fields may be perfectly proper. 
In a city park the grass must be protected ; there- 
fore the city officers are allowed to decide what the 
rule about walking on the grass in that city shall be. 
Just so it is their duty to decide where there shall be 
streets, and whether they shall be paved; to provide 



THE CITY STREETS; AND THE DEPOT. 2^ 

fire-engines and employ firemen for extinguishing 
fires ; to make arrangements for bringing in water by 
an aqueduct ; and for lighting the streets with gas or 
electric light; and for like things which are important 
to all the people of the city, but do not concern the rest 
of the State. They also employ policemen to set any 
one right who has lost his way, assist any one who is 
hurt, and prevent any one from doing mischief. 
All judicious and well-educated persons who visit a 
city are careful to obey all the city laws, and to com- 
ply with any directions which the policemen give them. 
A few years ago on this very Boston Common, the 
city officers made a coasting place in the winter for 
the boys of the city. They set apart a path which 
ran down hill for the coasting, and poured water 
over it to freeze and make the path slippery, and 
then stationed a police officer at the lower end to say 
to any one walking that way, " This is not a path 
for walking : it is the boys' coasting place." Not- 
withstanding these things a grown man persisted in 
walking on that path. The sled of a boy who was 
sliding down the hill ran against him, and he was 
knocked down and badly hurt. He brought a law- 



28 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

suit against the city to require the city to pay his 
doctor's bill. But the court said that the city had a 
perfect right to make a coasting place for the boys ; 
and grown persons had no right to walk upon it. 

Besides cities there are counties. These have 
charge of matters which are important in country 
places where perhaps there may not be many people 
living. For example, the paved streets in a city are 
usually made and kept in order by the city officers ; ' 
but the country roads which spread everywhere, run- 
ning from one city or town to another, also the 
bridges across streams, are usually made by the county 
authorities. The sign often posted over a bridge, 
" Five dollars fine for driving across this bridge faster 
than a walk," is an example of a county law. And 
counties have most to do with catching criminals ; 
for these might easily escape from the cities, and the 
policemen could not be spared to search the woods 
and fields for them. 

Besides cities and counties there are towns and 
villages. It is, however, very difficult to explain 
about these, because the words about them are not 
used alike in all parts of the land. Ask some grown 



THE CITY STREETS ; AND THE DEPOT. 29 

person to explain a good map of a State. It ought 
to be a pretty large-sized map. On such a map you 
will often find large irregular patches printed in dif- 
ferent colors or with borders of different colors : 
these are the counties. Every county is divided by 
fine lines into little squares : these are towns or 
townships. They are usually pretty square, but not 
perfectly ; in the Western States they are much more 
regular and even than in the Eastern. Also here and 
there little spots are marked, some large and black, 
others smaller; some of these are called towns, 
others are cities or villages. You will see that the 
largest of these are in places convenient for ships 
and railroads. You will see also that the counties fill 
the entire State. So do the townships. But the 
cities and villages do not fill the State : they are seen 
only here and there where a great many persons wish 
to live together. Usually, as soon as people begin to 
live in a State in numbers, the whole State is divided 
into counties, and again into townships, so that 
every place can have some laws as fast as needed. 
In these townships or towns all the inhabitants, so 
long as there are not too many, meet in a public 



30 THE TRAVELLING. LAW-SCHOOL. 

meeting- now and then, and make what laws they 
please. They can make laws for their own town 
only. ' Their assembly is called the town meeting. 
When, however, so many persons reside in a place 
that the town meeting becomes too large, the legisla- 
ture sitting in the State-house will pass a law declar- 
ing that place a city. In a city there are no town 
meetings; the inhabitants elect a mayor and some 
aldermen to attend to the public business for them. 
A city hall is built, which corresponds to a State- 
house. The mayor and aldermen meet here and de- 
cide questions or pass laws for the city. The meet- 
ing which makes laws for a city is often called the 
common council. 

The ancient cities of Europe began somewhat dif- 
ferently. The land was divided into small territo- 
ries — kingdoms they were often called. Each king- 
dom was ruled by a king (or possibly a queen). He 
was usually a military chieftain. Either he or one 
of his ancestors had conquered the kingdom and di- 
vided the land among his soldiers ; and as the original 
soldiers died their sons inherited the lands. Each king 
was accustomed to require the inhabitants, in return for 



THE CITY STREETS; AND THE DEPOT. 3 1 

his protecting them in their lands, to give part of 
their crops for the support of the king and his court 
and army officers ; whenever he became engaged in 
war and needed soldiers, they were obliged to serve ; 
also he would require the common people to pay trib- 
ute. Merchants and manufacturers disliked to be 
called away from their business to serve the king, or 
to have their profits consumed in tributes ; hence 
they would often gather in a convenient spot, build a 
wall around it to keep out invaders, and declare them- 
selves to be a city, and claim liberty to make their 
own laws. How far they could prove themselves to 
be free from the exactions of the kings and chieftains 
differed in different cities. But on the whole, a 
great deal of modern liberty was attained in this 
way, by the wiser, thriftier and more resolute people 
in the land combining in cities to resist the military 
tyranny of the soldiers, and to establish just laws. 

But by this time we have reached the railroad 
depot. Now we shall begin a ride. We shall be in 
charge of the railroad corporation. The railroad com- 
panies make certain laws — regulations, they are usually 
called, and travellers need to understand and obey them. 



IV. — PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 



" If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters, I shall be 
happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been 
so liberal and beneficient." — Washington : Chips from the White House, 
p. 22. 

"The Indians shall have my first attention; and I will not rest until they ' 
shall have justice." — Lincoln : Id. p. 283. 

" Other nations see their people going, going. We see from every quar- 
ter the people of other countries, coming, coming, coming." — Hayes: Id. 
P- 373- 

" No child of mine shall ever be compelled to study one hour, or to learn 
even the English alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at least 
seven years of muscle and bone." — Garfield : Id.- p. 408. 



WHO would guess that the polite invitation 
above quoted was written to a slave girl ? 
It was. Her name was Phillis Wheatley. She ad- 
dressed a complimentary poem to General Washing- 
ton, and he wrote to thank her for it. His whole 
letter is given in Chips. It shows that even a hun- 
dred years ago wise and good men were willing to 
treat colored people kindly and politely. Yet many 

of the States held them in slavery. At length a great 

32 • 



PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 33 

war arose, the result of which was that slavery was 
abolished forever. Ask some grown person to tell 
you about the war and emancipation. There are no 
slaves to be seen on the journey from the State-house 
at Boston to the capitol at Washington, but we shall 
meet many negroes. In the whole land there are 
about four million negroes. Almost all were born in 
this country. A great many were formerly slaves. On 
account of slavery the colored people are very gen- 
erally poor and uneducated. Probably they are not 
yet capable of learning as fast and as much as white 
persons, or if they are, they have not had a good 
opportunity. They are willing to work, but need to 
be told what to do. They are not as ingenious or 
as prudent and thrifty as some white persons. Most 
of them are proud of their liberty and new right of 
voting, and seem endeavoring to improve. In some 
places the white people oppress or cheat them. But 
the law now declares that they shall everywhere have 
equal rights with white persons. 

A gentleman riding in the cars by the side of a very intelli- 
gent-looking old colored man, asked him, " Why do not the 
negroes grow rich?" " Dey ain't savin'," he answered; "if 



34 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

dey gits a few dollars dey moves roun' a sight spryer to spen' it 
dan dey did to aim it. : ' " Tell me," said the gentleman, " about 
the quarrels." Said the old negro, " Sometimes de white folks 
has a row, and sometimes de niggers has a row ; sometimes de 
white folks pitches into de niggers, and sometimes de niggers 
pitches into de white folks — and den' agin dey don't. But I 
say, massa, We zvoUs J " 

For colored people to call themselves "niggers" 
may not be amiss. For white persons to do so is 
vulgar and unkind. ' 

The chief classes of people in America are the 
white people who were born here, the negroes, the 
Indians, and the immigrants. Of Indians there are 
about three hundred thousand. There is, however, 
very little chance of seeing one on a journey from 
Boston to Washington, for very few of them live in 
the towns and cities of Eastern States. When the 
discoverers first arrived in America, they did not 
know they had landed on a new continent, but 
supposed they had reached India. Therefore they 
called the copper-colored natives Indians. They soon 
found that the name was not a correct one, yet they 
continued to use it. Persons who wish to speak 
very accurately call the red men the aborigines. 



PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 35 

" Aborigines " means " here from the beginning." 
There are numerous tribes of these American In- 
dians, and they differ in character and habits. Some 
tribes are comparatively- gentle, teachable, industri- 
ous and honest, and have become quite civilized. 
Others are fierce, wild, savage and treacherous. 
Some tribes live quietly on large tracts of land 
called Indian reservations, which have been set 
apart for them by government. Others roam over 
unsettled parts of the country, hunting and fishing 
as they find opportunity. And a small number 
dwell among the whites in the towns and villages. 
Most persons think that injustice has often been 
done to the Indians. It was when the great civil 
war was closing, and just before he was shot, that 
President Lincoln wrote, " I will not rest until they 
shall have justice." 

A great many of our people came from foreign 
lands. Persons who go from a country to live in 
another are called emigrants. Persons who come 
from another country are called immigrants. Ever 
since America began to be settled, immigrants have 
been coming very steadily. As fast as they have 



36 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

found homes and work, many of them have written 
to their friends in the Old World, praising America 
and advising them to come. For three or four years 
past an immense number have been coming ; in 
1879 ne a r ty I 5°> 000 ; m 1880 more than 300,000; 
in 1881 probably 500,000. This is what made Pres- 
ident Hayes say, " We see people coming, coming." 
They come from almost all European countries. 
Most of them are honest, industrious people, bring 
some money with them, and are anxious to buy 
farms, or to take work for wages as soon as pos- 
sible. All such immigrants have always been made 
welcome. There is a curious office at Castle Garden, 
in New York City, where the shiploads of immigrants 
are received, and where they stay for a few days, 
until they can decide where to go. Officers are there 
ready to aid them. They need help, for they have 
not much education or business experience, and many 
of them do not understand our language. 

America has for many years declared that every 
person who chose to leave his native land and re- 
move to America or any other country had the right 
to do so. Many of the countries abroad have said, 



PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 37 

" Our subjects have no right to move away without 
our leave. " Great Britain used to say this ; but in 
1870 she made an agreement with our nation that 
the people of the two countries might come and go 
as they pleased. There is a somewhat similar agree- 
ment between China and the United States. Not 
quite a year ago Switzerland made a new law saying 
that poor persons not able to work, and young chil- 
dren, should not emigrate from Switzerland to 
America, unless there were friends or money here to 
support them. This law also says that the ships 
must carry Swiss emigrants comfortably, give them 
good food, and medicines if they are sick, and take 
good care of their baggage. 

When an immigrant arrives, the law will immedi- 
ately take care of him as a person. If any one 
cheats him, or steals from him, or hurts him, he can 
complain to the courts, just as if he were an Ameri- 
can ; and the wrong-doer will be punished. The 
immigrants have the benefit of our laws from their 
arrival. But a foreigner must be naturalized before 
he is allowed to vote. Naturalizing means that a 
court gives him leave to become a citizen. And he 



38 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

cannot be naturalized until he has lived in this 
country at least five years. 

Of course young citizens will wish to know some- 
what of the rules about children. The law means to 
be especially kind to children, and very careful and 
considerate of their welfare. Just as General Gar- 
field said that his children should not be compelled 
to study until they were at least seven years old, so 
the judges all say, " We will not punish a child for' 
anything, whatever it may do, before it is seven. Un- 
til then let its parents and teachers punish it if neces- 
sary." The law will protect the rights of the very 
youngest child. Any one who is cruel to a child, 
however young, may be punished. The littlest boy 
or girl may own property, and the judges will appoint 
a guardian to take care of it until the little owner 
grows old enough. Between seven and fourteen a 
child may be punished for breaking the laws, pro- 
vided it knew better. If a policeman should arrest 
a grown man for stealing, and carry him before a 
judge to be punished, and the man should say thai 
he did not know that stealing was against the law, 
the judge would say, "That makes no difference. ,, 



PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 



39 



If the person arrested were a lad above seven but 
under fourteen, the judge would ask, " How do you 
know that this boy knew that what he did was wrong? 
Unless he knew that, I cannot send him to jail. His 
parents must take charge of him, or he should be 
sent to a school or society to be taught." 

About a year ago a boy eleven years old was tried 
for assisting his father in killing a person. The 
judges said that as he was not fourteen, he could not 
be punished without proof that he knew the wrong- 
fulness of what he did. Without this they would 
suppose that he was a dull, weak boy who did what- 
ever he was told ; and they set him free. If the per- 
son arrested were a child under seven, the judge 
would not hear the complaint at all, except, perhaps, 
enough to send the little thing to some kind persons 
who would care for it. But in some of the States 
the laws state these ages somewhat differently. 

It is often said until a lad is one and twenty he 
cannot make agreements. This is not quite correct. 
He cannot bind himself by his agreements. For ex- 
ample, it is not against the law for him to buy a 
horse, if any person will sell him one, nor for him to 



4-0 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

promise to pay the price next month, or next year. 
But the horse-dealer cannot compel the lad to pay 
the money by a lawsuit. If he should bring such a 
suit the judges would say, " This lad's promise to pay 
did not bind him, because he was not of age when he 
made it." The rule protects young persons from being 
cheated. They have twenty-one years allowed them 
for learning about business and property ; and during 
those years they are not compelled to perform their 
bargains. Hence, whenever they find they have been 
cheated, they can " back out." This does not apply 
to marrying, though that is a kind of bargain. If a 
boy above fourteen or a girl above twelve were to be 
married, perhaps the law would say, " You cannot 
retract." 

At twenty-one, the young man becomes " of age ; " 
after that, his bargains are binding upon him. What- 
ever wages he earns belong to him, and he is allowed 
to vote. The same is true as to girls, except that 
they do not vote, and that, in one or two of the 
States, girls are called " of age " at eighteen. 

In most European countries children have less 
liberty than in America. Thus in France there are 



PEOPLE WHOM WE MEET. 41 

very stringent rules for keeping records of births ; 
also a formal way of adopting a child, or of emanci- 
pating one — that is, of setting him free from author- 
ity of his parents before he becomes of age. French 
parents can by law govern their children more strictly, 
and longer, than do Americans, and have much more 
power to prevent their marrying; and can have a dis- 
obedient child, if under sixteen, imprisoned for a 
month; one above sixteen, for six months, or even 
more if six should not be enough. And if any one 
else has left property to a child, the father can spend 
the whole income, being only bound to maintain the 
child suitably. 



V.— THE RIDE TO NEW YORK. 



" Nothing more aptly describes the character of our Republic than the 
solar system. . . The sun holds in the grasp of its attractive power the 
whole system, and imparts its light and heat to all, yet each individual planet is 
under the sway of laws peculiar to itself. . . So the States move on in 
their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central government by this 
constitution, which is their supreme law ; while each State is making laws and / 
regulations of its own, developing its own energies, maintaining its own 
industries, managing its local affairs m its own way." — Garfield: Chips 
from the White House t p. 422. 



THE Travelling Law-school is now to ride in the 
cars from Boston to New York. We will notice 
on the way whether things which we see are under 
State law or under national. In the little villages 
almost the only national thing is the post-office. It 
is the United States government which carries all the 
letters and newspapers, owns all the mail-bags, em- 
ploys all the postmasters and carriers ; and it needs 
a great many post-offices. In New York the post- 
office is an immense stone edifice. On Western 

prairies the post-office is sometimes only a box upon 

42 



THE RIDE TO NEW YORK. 43 

a tall post. The carrier leaves the letters in the box, 
and the settlers look into the box, whenever conven- 
ient, for their letters. 

Thus we can never tell by the size or importance 
of the building whether the business done within it is 
State or national. In Worcester, through which we 
pass, is a large and handsome asylum for insane 
persons. This, like most asylums, is under State 
laws. The next large city we pass is Springfield. 
Here is an armory. It is an immense establishment 
for manufacturing cannon, rifles, pistols, cartridges, 
and various equipments for the army. This armory 
is under United States laws. For whatever relates 
to the army is managed by the national government. 
A State does not have an army ; if enemies come, 
and she needs one for driving them away, the Gov- 
ernor writes to the President, and the President 
orders a troop of soldiers of the national army to 
go and help that Governor and his State. The States 
have what is called the militia, or the national guard. 
The men between eighteen and forty-five are in duty 
bound to serve their State as soldiers, when needed, 
and they form companies and practise military evolu- 



44 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

tions, and learn how to load and fire. Whenever 
there is a war, and the nation needs a larger army 
than the national government has, the President 
asks the governors to send some of the militia. And 
the militia march forth from the States, and join the 
army, serving as soldiers under the President's orders 
while they are needed. This seems very perplexing. 
If the Governor needs the army, he must send to the 
President ; and if the President lacks soldiers, he , 
must send to the Governor. But it hinders either 
government in making war upon the other. And 
military service is made very easy and inexpensive. 
In America the army is very small — only about 
twenty-five thousand men. It does not cost the peo- 
ple much, and whenever the people think it costs too 
much they can vote to make it smaller. They need 
not serve in the militia more than they vote to do. 

All this is very different in foreign countries. In 
some, every young man must serve in the army for a 
few years, whether he wishes or not. In others, lots 
are drawn in all the villages once a year; and the 
lads who draw unlucky numbers are marched away 
to become soldiers. This is called the conscription. 



THE RIDE TO NEW YORK. 45 

Many interesting stories have been written about 
youths drawn in the French conscription. We never 
need a conscription, unless for a very short time when 
there is a great war. Never but once has there been 
a war in this country requiring a conscription, or a 
" draft," as it was called. The reason is, that all 
the States are united under one national govern- 
ment. And as long as that government can be 
maintained, no wars can arise between the States, 
and the army need not be very large. In Europe, 
the governments are independent, and therefore in 
more danger of war. So they need larger armies, 
and must have harsh laws for obtaining soldiers. 

Switzerland is a small territory. It is defended by 
rivers and mountains against attacks from neighbor- 
ing powers, and has an excellent government to pre- 
serve order in its own territory, and for these 
reasons has less need of an army; but every man 
has to be a soldier, and is drilled and assigned to a 
company. In time of peace the Swiss men engage 
in various kinds of business, but all have to be ready, 
in case either of the dangerous neighbors should 
make an attack, to join the army. 



46 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

The navy, like the army, is under United States 
laws, and may be quite small. At present the 
American navy has about ninety steam vessels and 
twenty-three sail vessels. This is a very small 
number for so large a nation. Most of these were 
hurriedly built during the civil war, and are nearly 
worn out; for g when a ship in the navy is fourteen 
years old ■ — just the age when a boy can be useful — 
she is considered too old for important sendee. 
Of the steam vessels in our navy, twenty-four are of 
iron, sixty-six of wood. European countries have 
built many iron and steel ships, much stronger than 
any we Americans have ; and many persons think 
our navy ought to be made larger. Others think 
the people should not be taxed for these costly 
ships. As our governments are arranged, the States 
are not at any expense for a navy, and the United 
States need not spend any more for one than the 
representatives of the people think best. 

Soon after we pass Springfield, in our ride, we 
shall cross the boundary line between New-York and 
Connecticut. Shall we watch for the line ? There 
is nothing to be seen. A girl about twelve years old 



THE RIDE TO NEW YORK. 47 

was one day riding with her parents, and heard 
her father say to her mother, "We are drawing 
near the boundary between the two States." This 
girl had studied geography, and knew about the 
boundaries, and she thought she should like to see 
one. So for a long time she sat looking out of the 
window watching for it. At last she asked, " Papa, 
when shall we come to the boundary line ? " 

" Oh, we have passed it." 

"No, papa; I have watched carefully." 

" Why, did you think there was a line you could 
see, like a clothesline, or a telegraph line ? " 

" I thought there would be a line like the one 
drawn on the maps." 

" Oh, no," said her papa ; " there is no actual 
line. There is nothing to be seen. It is only the 
place which men have agreed shall be called the end 
of Massachusetts and the beginning of Connecticut. 
Men can determine where it is by measuring, and 
can put stakes to mark the place ; but the real 
boundary is an invisible thing. It is like the end of 
an hour ; people know when they come to it by the 
hands of the clock, or hearing it strike ; but the real 



4$ THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

end of the hour cannot be seen or heard." 
The girl thought this was difficult to understand, 
and it is. Yet the boundaries of the States are very 
important things. 

About a hundred years ago there were but thirteen 
States ; yet even then wise men saw that it would be 
best to form a Union or Federal government. Also, 
there was a great deal of wild land outside the 
thirteen States, and gradually enough persons settled 
upon various parts of it to form additional States, 
and these new States joined the Union. While a 
region of country is gradually growing thickly settled 
enough to become a State it is called a Territory; 
but it has a government very much like that of a 
State. At present there are thirty-eight States and 
eight such Territories. 

Have you ever examined the American flag? 
There are thirteen horizontal stripes, red and white 
alternately : these represent the States which at first 
formed the Union. And there is a blue field in an 
upper corner, in which are now thirty-eight stars : 
these represent the whole number of States at the 
time when the flag was made. If you buy a flag, 



THE RIDE TO NEW YORK. 49 

count the stars and see if there are thirty-eight. If 
not, the store-keeper is trying to sell you an old-fash- 
ioned flag. And whenever a new State is admitted 
all flag-makers ought afterwards to work an addi- 
tional star in their flags to represent it. The union 
of the States is also expressed in the motto, E plu- 
ribus unum : one from many. Americans have one 
government, the Union, composed of many States. 

One great benefit arising from the Union is that 
there are no custom-houses at State boundaries, nor 
are any passports required. Americans who go to 
Europe learn that they must before starting get a 
passport — which is a writing showing that the trav- 
eller is an American citizen. In crossing the bound- 
aries of the various kingdoms and principalities 
of the Continent, they often are required to show 
their passports, and allow officers of the kingdoms 
they are entering to examine their baggage. This 
is very inconvenient. Few persons realize that if 
it were not for the Union, travellers might probably 
be required to exhibit passports and pay duties 
at the custom-house — which is an office for col- 
lecting money to support the government — every 



50 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

time they crossed a State boundary line. On the 
journey the Travelling Law-school is taking this 
would happen six times : first at the boundary of 
Connecticut, again at the boundary of New York, 
again on entering Jersey City, and on crossing into 
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, one after 
another. It is the Union which saves us this annoy- 
ance. 



VI.— RAILROAD TRAVEL. 



" The railroad has not only brought our people and their industries 
together, but it has carried civilization into the wilderness; has built up 
States and Territories which, but for its power, would have remained deserts 
for a century to come." — Garfield; Chips from the White House, p, 433. 



THE ride of the Travelling Law-school from New 
Haven to New York will give an opportunity 
of explaining how to travel. Last fall a Mrs. Her- 
man died in Germany, leaving two little children, 
Gottlieb and Frederika. Their father had come to 
this country a short time before, and they wished to 
follow him, but there was no grown person to bring 
them. Their friends bought tickets for them and 
put them on board a steamship and the brother took 
care of himself and his sister all the way, though he 
was only six years old and she but four and a half. 
The steamship people said that he behaved splen- 
didly. When they reached Castle Garden, which is 

51 



52 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

a sort of hotel for immigrants in New York City, the 
superintendent put them in a car to ride to their 
father's home somewhere in Illinois. As the con- 
ductor and brakemen would help and watch over 
them, they probably made the long trip safely. Thus 
we see that very young people may need to take long 
journeys. Travelling is perplexing at first, but be- 
comes easy and pleasant when one understands it. 

If any one wishes to know which government hds 
most control of travel, the answer is that convey- 
ances by water are governed by the United States, but 
journeying on land is chiefly subject to the State in 
which the traveller is. Some persons think it would 
be better for the United States to make all the laws 
respecting journeys from one State to another, so 
that the laws should be uniform ; but this has not yet 
been done. Travellers, however, are not much con- 
cerned with these great laws. They have more need 
to know the rules made by the companies, and the 
customs of travellers. These customs or usages are 
not exactly laws, yet it is wise to follow them ; for if 
two persons ask a court to decide a dispute, and the 
judge finds there is no distinct law to settle it, he 



RAILROAD TRAVEL. 53 

will inquire, " What is customary in such cases ? " 
A court often treats usages of the people as forming 
a sort of law, if they are reasonable, convenient, and 
widely known. Law questions about travelling are 
often decided according to the usages of travellers. 
The best way of learning these usages is to watch 
what older travellers do, or to ask them what is cus- 
tomary. The companies must give notice of their 
regulations. There are various ways, as by posting 
a placard in the depot or car, printing the rule on 
the tickets, or stationing a gateman to tell passen- 
gers as they pass him what they must do. 

It is important to know that the conductor is what 
maybe called the "captain" of the train. He con- 
trols everything on the journey except the manage- 
ment of the engine. The ticket-seller and the bag- 
gage-man do not go on the cars, they remain at the 
depot, and renew their services to the next train. 
The engineer, with a fireman or two to aid him, man- 
ages the engine, and the passengers scarcely see him. 
The brakemen do whatever the conductor directs, 
and will answer any civil questions which a passenger 
needs to put. The whole authority, as far as passen- 



54 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

gers are concerned, is in the conductor, He is the 
person to explain the regulations, and to enforce them 
if a passenger, after being told, will not obey. 

When a gentleman having a lady in his charge 
reaches the station to take passage in the cars, it is 
usually best for him to leave the trunks in some 
one's care and to escort the lady to the Ladies' 
room, where she may sit while he makes the ar- 
rangements. There will probably be two rooms, one* 
labelled Ladies' Room, another Gentlemen's Room. 
These signs are a regulation of the company that 
ladies are to have the use of one and men travelling 
alone are to occupy the other ; but -a gentleman trav- 
elling with a lady can sit with her in the Ladies' 
room. In a large depot there will be many other 
doors with signs upon them, such as " Dining 
Room ; " " Superintendent's Room ; " " Outward 
Baggage Room." These signs are regulations to in- 
form passengers whether they may enter the rooms 
or not. If one wishes to obey the rules, it is easy to 
judge by the sign over a door whether he may go in 
or not ; and he may almost always be sure that a door 
with no sign is not for passengers. If one is " prowl- 



RAILROAD TRAVEL. 55 

ing around," like Bluebeard's wife, full of curiosity to 
go into rooms where he is not wanted, the signs will 
not hinder him. But the companies have the right, 
by law, to set apart some rooms where passengers 
must not go, and one who disobeys the sign and 
goes in may be ordered out, and even expelled by 
force. A person who makes noise or disturbance in 
the passengers' room, or smokes where the rule " No 
Smoking " is posted, may be expelled. 

The next thing for the gentleman to do is to buy 
tickets. There is almost sure to be a sign " Ticket- 
office." This is a regulation that whoever wishes to 
ride should not trust to paying fare to the conductor, 
but must buy a ticket beforehand. If, indeed, a con- 
ductor should find a passenger riding who had no 
ticket, but was willing to pay, he would take the 
money ; he would not put the passenger off the car. 
But he would charge a little extra. The fare thus 
paid is usually five or ten cents more than the cost of 
a ticket. This is to make passengers careful to buy 
tickets. There is usually a ticket- window for ladies, 
opening into the Ladies' room. It is better to buy 
tickets before going to check the baggage, because 



56 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

there may be a regulation of the company — there is 
one in many large depots — that the baggage-master 
must not give checks for trunks until the tickets are 
shown to him. Where there is such a regulation, a 
passenger who goes first to check baggage wiil be 
sent back to buy a ticket. An experienced traveller 
will take notice whether there is a " queue " in front 
of the ticket-office, and if there is one, he will take 
his place in the line behind the last man, and move ' 
slowly up until he reaches the window in his turn. 
Ask some grown person to describe a queue to you. 
There is very seldom any need to form a queue at a 
railroad ticket-office : on a steamboat one is almost 
always formed. If a person should disregard the 
queue and walk up to the window at one side, the 
ticket-seller would tell him to stand back, and the 
other passengers would grumble, " Take your turn." 
If he persisted and made trouble he could be arrested 
and taken to court ; and the judge would say, " You 
are fined for disorderly conduct. It is the usage of 
travellers to form a queue for buying tickets when- 
ever there is a crowd; and persons who take journeys 
should learn such usages and conform to them." 



RAILROAD TRAVEL. 57 

The next thing in order is to get checks for the 
trunks. Most passengers have some small articles 
which they carry with them, and also a trunk, which 
the hackman, when he brings the party to the 
depot, leaves with the baggage-master. When the 
passenger comes he points out his trunk and tells the 
baggage-master whither he is going, and the baggage- 
master gives him a queer little bit of brass having a 
number and some mysterious letters stamped upon 
it. This is the check. If you watch a baggage- 
man when he gives a check you will see that he has 
another similar bit of brass which hangs at the end of 
a strap, and by this strap he will fasten this bit to the 
handle of the trunk. If you can compare the two 
you will see that the stamped numbers are the same. 
The shape of the check, and the letters show the 
baggage-men all along the road at which station the 
trunk is to be put off ; and the number shows that it 
belongs to the passenger who produces, at the stcp- 
ping-place, the check with the corresponding number. 
Baggage-men have to be very careful to keep the 
checks separately, for if they become mixed the 
trunks will go astray all over the country. And a 



58 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

passenger needs to keep his cheek carefully, for if a 
dishonest person should steal or find it, he, instead of 
the owner, can get the trunk. 

The next question is about going aboard the cars. 
Perhaps a gong or bell will strike to let passengers 
know when the car is ready. There may be a gate- 
man who will say, as the passengers pass him, " Show 
your tickets." This is a regulation which one must 
obey. You will almost always at way stations' 
find a time-table posted in the passengers' room. 
This is a regulation prescribed by the company to 
govern the running of trains. The conductor and 
the engineer have copies of the time-table, and 
if they find the train is reaching the station a 
little ahead of time they run somewhat slower. 
Oftener they get behind time, and then they run 
faster and try to make up; but sometimes they 
cannot do so. In studying a time-table, remember 
that the time of day is a little different in different 
towns and cities. If the watches of the Travelling 
Law-school were just right by the best clock in 
Boston, they will be nearly fifteen minutes slow when 
we reach New York. Owing to this, a person may 



RAILROAD TRAVEL. 59 

find that his train arrives sooner or later than he ex- 
pected, judging by his own watch, and yet the train 
may be on time, judged by railroad time. In all 
close calculations be sure you have railroad time. 

When you go to the train you will perhaps find there 
is a ladies' car, or a drawing-room car, but there is 
always a brakeman or porter ready to tell passengers 
about these. In ordinary cars passengers are sup- 
posed to know the rules and usages without being 
told. It is not wrong for one person to take the 
whole of the double seat, or for two persons to turn 
one seat over so as to face backwards, and occupy the 
two, if there are plenty of seats for other passengers. 
But no one has a right to keep more than one seat if 
there be any passenger who Jacks a seat; when any 
person does this it is proper to appeal to the con- 
ductor, and he will compel the uncivil passenger to 
give up the extra place. Every experienced and con- 
siderate traveller watches as the car fills, and when 
he sees that the seats are nearly all taken he empties 
the extra seat so that it shall be ready for the next 
comer. 

A very important usage of travel is that one can 



60 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

keep a seat by leaving an article of baggage in it. 
Whenever, therefore, on entering the car, you find 
that' many seats have overcoats or valises or umbrellas 
in them, it is best to consider them as taken, and 
look for others. If an ignorant passenger should 
dump such a valise in the alley-way of the car and 
take the seat himself, the owner would before long 
return and claim the seat. If the ignorant passenger 
refused to leave it, the owner of the valise could, if he 
chose, appeal to the conductor, and the conductor 
would probably say that he was entitled to it. If the 
ignorant passenger would not yield, the conductor 
could call a brakeman, and they two would have the 
right to pull him out by force, and even, if he con- 
tinued to make trouble, to stop the train and put 
him off. Conductors are usually very unwilling to do 
these things, but they have authority to expel 
passengers who disobey the rules or will not pay 
fare from the cars. 



VII.— IN NEW YORK AND AROUND IT. 

'* As an abstract theory, the doctrine of free trade seems to be universally 
true; but as a question of practicability, under a government like ours, the 
protective system seems to be indispensable. . . I am for a protection that 
leads to ultimate free trade. 1 ' — Garfield : Chips from tJte White House, 
pp. 392, 407. 

A LTHOUGH New York City is the largest city in 
-*■ ■*- the State, it is not the capital. Boston is the 
largest city in Massachusetts, and is also the capital ; 
but not because it is so large. A city is sometimes 
called " metropolis," or "emporium," to signify that it 
is large and important ; but it is not called the capital of 
the State unless it has been selected as the place for 
building the State House and doing the business of 
the State government. Remember that a capital city 
need not be a large one. 

There are many interesting things in New York. 

There is a very large park, containing a pond for 

boating or skating, a music stand with a band to play 

61 



62 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

in summer afternoons, a curious cave and ramble, 
several cosey summer-houses and refreshment-sa- 
loons, many wonderful birds and beasts, and some 
trained ponies and carriages drawn by goats for 
children. There are broad and handsome streets, 
some lined with elegant dwellings, others with 
shops exhibiting curious and beautiful things for 
sale. There are large and costly churches, libraries, 
school-houses, banks, hotels, museums and theatres', 
also what are called elevated railroads, which are 
built upon posts so that the cars run upon a level with 
the second or third stories of houses, while other cars 
and ordinary carts and carriages run underneath 
them. The chief street for business is Broadway, the 
sidewalks of which are thronged with people walking, 
while the street itself is so crowded with vehicles that 
sometimes they cannot move, but have to wait until 
the policemen can untangle the " jam." If we should 
go to the crowded end of Broadway and watch a lady 
out a-shopping who wished to cross the street, we 
should see her standing at the corner looking very 
anxiously among the stages and carts. Soon a 
policeman would approach and say, " Do you wish 



IX NEW YORK AND AROUND IT. 63 

to cross, madam?" She would say, "Yes." Then 
he would " arrest " her by one arm, very politely, and 
walk with her right in among the carriages. At first 
she would be a little "scared; " but he would shake 
his club on this side or that at the horses or their 
drivers, and they would stop or turn aside, and thus 
in a minute the lady would be safely across. Then 
she would turn half way around and say with a smile, 
"Thank you, sir." By this you would see that 
what the teacher told you in December is true — 
a chief duty of policemen is to help people out of 
difficulty. And no honest, well-behaved person need 
be afraid of them. Whenever you are in trouble 
in a city street, it is well to ask aid from a police- 
man. 

New York has grown thus large and wealthy by 
reason of her spacious harbor and fine accommoda- 
tions for ships which bring goods from foreign lands 
to America. All little citizens know that the things 
people eat and drink or wear or use for furnishing 
their houses come from different parts of the world. 
One region has the best soil and climate for producing 
wheat, another for beef, another for cotton, another 



64 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

for tea or coffee, another for coal, iron or gold. Also, 
the various nations have different taste and skill about 
making things ; thus some can manufacture silks or 
shawls better than anything else ; others prefer to 
make woollen or cotton cloth, or crockery, or iron 
ware. Of course the dwellers in each region like to 
exchange what they can raise or manufacture, and 
therefore have in great plenty, for what they cannot 
produce. This exchanging of goods between different 
parts of the world is called "commerce," and the 
persons who attend particularly to it are " merchants/'' 
Foreign commerce needs good harbors ; and New 
York supplies one. The city occupies a long, narrow 
island, on each side of which is a broad space of still 
and sheltered water called New York bay, which, 
toward the south, opens to the Atlantic Ocean through 
a strait called the Narrows ; this is of just the proper 
width to admit ships from Europe, while it keeps out 
the ocean storms. The shore of the island on each 
side is well adapted for wharves and piers at which 
these vessels can exchange cargoes. West of the 
island is a large river called Hudson or North river, 
up which vessels can sail fully a hundred miles carry- 



IN NEW YORK AND AROUND IT. 65 

ing goods to the northern part of the country. If we 
were to sail up this river all night in a steamboat we 
should land in the morning at the capital city — 
Albany. At Albany commences a canal along which 
goods can be carried to the West. For carrying 
goods from New York to the East there is a curious 
strip of water called East river; and vessels for 
southern ports can sail down through the Narrows 
and along the Atlantic coast. Besides these water- 
ways there are great railroads branching from New 
York to all parts of the country. If you will ask 
some grown person to explain this on a map you will 
see very clearly that New York is an excellent port 
for foreign commerce. 

Foreign commerce is one of the things placed 
under the charge of the United States government. 
Each State governs any commerce there may be 
within our own limits, but commerce among the 
States is subject only to the government at Washing- 
ton. All persons who " import " goods, that is, bring 
them into this country for sale, are required to pay 
some money for the privilege of doing so. This 
money is called the " duty, 1 ' and is collected at the 



66 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

custom-house in the port where the vessel arrives ; 
in New York the custom-house is an immense build- 
ing, and several hundred officers, clerks, brokers and 
messengers are kept busy in ascertaining and collect- 
ing the duties on the various cargoes which arrive in 
the harbor from foreign lands. The government at 
Washington has published a list of goods likely to 
be imported, specifying what duty must be paid upon 
each ; this is called the tariff. Suppose a merchant 
imports a cargo of tea from China. When the ship 
arrives, an officer from the custom-house visits her, 
counts and weighs the boxes, and ascertains the 
quality and value of the tea ; he then consults the 
tariff to see what duty is charged upon such 
tea, and computes what sum must be paid for allow- 
ing the cargo to enter. He notifies the merchant. 
The latter pays the duty at the custom-house, and 
the money is sent to Washington, where it is used to 
support the government. And the custom-house 
officers allow the tea to be brought ashore and un- 
packed for sale. If a merchant should refuse to pay 
the duty, he would not be allowed to bring his goods 
ashore. Sometimes persons contrive to brings goods 



IN NEW YORK AND AROUND IT. 67 

secretly, without paying duty ; this is called " smug- 
gling," and is a serious offence. Passengers coming 
from Europe sometimes endeavor to smuggle goods ; 
it is to prevent this that custom-house officers search 
their baggage. Some of the tricks of smugglers are 
very ingenious. A lady once landed from a steamer 
leading a shaggy yellow dog ; but the clog was so 
fat and waddled so clumsily that the custom-house 
officers suspected smuggling. They caught the dog 
and cut into his skin. Under the skin they found a 
great many yards of costly lace wound around the 
body of a lean, lank black-and-tan terrier. The out- 
side skin was the skin of some other dog which had 
been sewed over the lace in hope of smuggling 
the lace. 

Every importing merchant must of course add the 
amount of the duty paid upon his goods to the price 
he asks for them. If a piece of cloth a hundred 
yards long costs in France $50, and the expense of 
the voyage is $10 per piece, and a fair profit for the 
merchant is $15, then, in case there is no duty, the 
merchant can sell the cloth at seventy-five cents per 
yard ; but if the duty is twenty-five cents he must 



68 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

raise his price to $i. This will hinder the people 
from buying it, and make them more willing to buy 
cloth made in America instead. It has always been 
a perplexing question whether it is better that govern- 
ment should charge high duties on foreign goods, 
and thus " protect " manufacturers in this country 
against the competition of those foreign lands, or 
allow the people to buy whatever is cheapest wherever 
they please. Laying high duties to prevent foreign 
competition is called "protection," and is better 
for manufacturers and producers. Laying no duties 
(or very low ones) is called " free trade," and is better 
for merchants and ship-owners. If a father of five 
children should give them a dollar apiece to expend 
in Christmas presents, and should say, "I advise 
you to visit all the shops, and consider carefully 
where you can buy presents cheapest," this would be 
like entire free trade. But if, instead, he should 
say, " I do not wish you to spend this money in the 
shops, but among each other ; let each child make 
the best gifts he or she can — boats, sleds, boxes, book- 
marks, pin-cushions, slippers — and each buy from 
the others," this would be like complete protection. 



IN NEW YORK AND AROUND IT. 69 

By the free-trade plan the children would undoubt- 
edly get the handsomest gifts for the money. By the 
protection plan, they would keep the money among 
them, and would also gain excellent practice in mak- 
ing fancy articles. Which is the best plan ? Per- 
haps you will agree with General Garfield's opinion, 
which is our motto. In this country we never have 
either free trade or protection entire or complete. 
At present we have partial or moderate protection ; 
people can import foreign goods, notwithstanding 
they are such as could be procured here, if they are 
willing to pay a duty on them. 



VIII.— BARGAINS AND BUSINESS. 



" Confidence in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of trade and 
commerce. It is the vital air labor breathes. It is the light which shines in 
the pathway of prosperity." — Garfield: Chips from the White-House ', 
P. 443- 



WHAT does the Travelling Law-School wish 
to study while beginning the ride from 
New York to Philadelphia? How to succeed in 
business," 

" Yes ; and 'how to make good bargains." 
Excellent. There are probably a thousand books 
explaining the law about bargains and business ; and 
lawyers who study them become very much inter- 
ested in the various rules. But it is quite possible 
for young persons to begin business, and to prosper 
in it, without having learned much about the law. 
The chief object of having laws is to make people 

who are not honest, industrious, faithful, sensible 

70 



BARGAINS AND BUSINESS. 7 1 

and courteous, behave somewhat as if they were so. 
Hence, whoever has these qualities naturally, and 
makes bargains, or does business with good people, 
will very seldom have any trouble about the law. 
Good qualities of character, and good friends and 
acquaintances, are a young person's best assurance 
of succeeding in bargains and business. 

Some excellent business qualities are, however, 
quite opposite to each other. If one could choose 
his own traits, it would be a perplexing question as 
to some, which to choose. 

Ingenuity or docility. The question is perplexing 
whether a young person beginning business will 
succeed best by doing exactly as he is told without 
asking questions — which is called docility — or by 
using ingenuity in making improvements. 

A poor man once asked the rich Mr. Girard for 
work; and Mr. Girard said, "You see tern stone 
yondare ? " 

" Yes, sir," said the man. 

" Vare well ; you shall bring tern, and pile tern 
here." 

The man worked till noon doing so, and then told 



72 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

Mr. Girard that the job was done, and asked what 
he should do next. 

" Ah, ha ! Oui ! you shall go place tem stone 
where you got him." 

Mr. Girard did not really care where the stones 
lay — he was only trying the workman. 

At night the man reported that he had carried the 
stones all back ; and Mr. Girard paid him a dollar. 
Next day the man had the same task given him — of 
moving the stones back and forth — and did it as 
before. 

"Ah!" said Mr. Girard at night, "you shall be 
my man ; you mind your own business and do it ; 
you ask no questions." And the poor man thus 
obtained an excellent position. 

Many employers wish their " hands" to do just as they 
are told. It is an excellent quality, if one is not stupid. 
A lad once went to learn shoemaking, and the master 
gave him some leather, and a knife and pattern, and 
told him to cut out pieces of the leather exactly like 
the pattern. Now the pattern had a hole in it cut 
for hanging it on a nail ; and the poor boy, meaning 
to do just as he was told, cut a similar hole in all his 



BARGAINS AND BUSINESS. 73 

pieces. This spoiled them, and the master dismissed 
him ; which seems unjust. One needs, however, to 
use common sense even in obeying orders. And 
sometimes persons have succeeded wonderfully by 
ingenuity in doing better than they were told. When 
steam-engines were first invented, it was common to 
employ some one to open and shut a certain valve. 
A boy who was employed to do this took notice that 
a particular crank or lever in the machinery moved 
regularly just at the moment for opening the valve ; 
and he contrived, with a piece of cord, to tie the 
handle of the valve to this moving part of the 
machinery, after which the engine itself opened and 
shut the valve. When the employer saw this he was 
greatly pleased, for the contrivance led to a great 
improvement in the steam-engine. 

Ingenuity like this is a natural gift. Those boys 
and girls who really have it are very fortunate. But 
unless one has remarkable ingenuity, doing exactly as 
he is told, or as he sees other people do, is the best. 
He then does not need much knowledge of law. An 
ingenious, reforming person needs more ; for he may 
be breaking some law by his improvements, without 



74 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

knowing it. Also he needs to know the law about 
obtaining patents for his improvements when they 
are good. 

Shrewdness or simplicity, A boy who lived near a 
mill observed that a long wooden pole in the ma- 
chinery was wearing out. He knew, somehow, that it 
could not be replaced by a green tree ; a seasoned 
stem would be needed whenever the old one broke. 
So he cut down a tree of the right size, hauled it to * 
his father's dooryard, and let it lie there to dry and 
season. In about six months the mill-owner came 
rapping at the door. 

" What will you take for that pole.? " he asked. 

" One hundred dollars," said the boy. 

" A hundred dollars for that common pole ? " 

" Yes, sir ; I saw your pole was wearing out, and I 
thought you would rather pay a good price than have 
the mill stopped while another was seasoning. So I 
got one ready for you." And the mill-owner found 
he had better pay the money. 

This is an example of shrewdness. It is a natu- 
ral gift, and persons who have it are very fortunate, 
provided they also have honesty. Years ago a boy 



BARGAINS AND BUSINESS. 75 

advertised that to every person sending him twenty- 
five cents, he would mail a steel-plate portrait, fairly 
executed, of the famous president, Andrew Jackson. 
Whenever a letter with twenty-five cents came, he 
immediately forwarded a two-cent postage stamp ! 
Of course people soon began to complain, and the 
post-office authorities stopped the fraud. This was a 
shrewd plan, for when the contriver was arrested for 
swindling, he could say, " I did exactly what I prom- 
ised ; I did not promise a large portrait, but only 
a fairly executed one." But it was dishonest shrewd- 
ness. One objection to shrewdness is, that often 
where it is not perhaps really dishonest, it seems 
dishonest to those who are not naturally shrewd. 
Plain people are apt to suspect and dislike shrewd 
ones. Whether the mill-owner would be willing to 
employ the boy who sold him the pole, in his mill, 
would depend on the boy's being moderate in the 
price he asked, and the man's being good-natured. 
Many a man would feel what is called " overreached, " 
and would be angry, even if he paid the money. 
Still, honest shrewdness is an advantage. But young 
persons who have not that natural gift can succeed in 



76 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

bargains and business by cultivating simple, straight- 
forward, distinct ways. Perhaps you cannot make 
yourself uncommonly shrewd, but you can learn to 
be simple, clear and frank in your dealings. A 
youth who is candid in explaining what work he is 
willing to do ; who says distinctly what wages he 
thinks he ought to have ; who makes a memorandum 
of the bargain, or preserves the letters which were 
written about the business ; who does as he prom-' 
ises ; who keeps accurate accounts of what he earns 
and receives, and who saves part of his earnings on 
interest, is more likely to succeed than if he were 
remarkably shrewd but had not learned these things. 
He is not trying to get advantage over other people, 
but to help them, hence they are not suspicious or 
jealous of him, but are willing to help him. His 
plain common sense, and his frank, distinct way 
of explaining what he means, aid him to avoid misun- 
derstandings ; and when a dispute arises, it is easily 
settled without a law-suit. But a person gifted with 
shrewdness needs to study the law carefully to know 
just how far he may go in making his shrewd bar- 
gains. 



BARGAINS AND BUSINESS. 77 

Versatility or perseverance. By versatility is meant 
the gift which some people have of doing a great 
many kinds of work, and of changing their plans 
readily when circumstances change. A young man 
was once making his first speech in the House of 
Commons, but he was not a good speaker, and the 
members laughed at him and would not listen. At 
last he stopped, shouting, " I shall sit down now, 
but the time will come when you shall hear me." 
He then persisted in studying and practising, and 
became a very skilful orator in that very house, 
and was, at length, the famous Lord Beaconsfield. 
Every one now properly praises his persistence. 
Once when commerce had lately been opened with 
a certain hot country, a London merchant sent thither 
a cargo of warming-pans. Now warming-pans were 
useless in so warm a climate, and everybody laughed, 
— no one would buy. There was, however, a great 
deal of sugar-making there ; and the merchant or- 
dered his agent to take off the covers and advertise 
the warming-pans as sugar-ladles ! They were just 
what were convenient for dipping the hot cane-juice 
out of the boilers, and they sold at a great profit. 



78 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

This was a very judicious change of plan. If the 
merchant had persisted in his warming-pan project 
he would have lost his money. To know when to 
persist and when to change is very difficult. 

Some persons succeed in doing several kinds of 
business, and in making and performing a great 
variety of bargains, together. This versatility, how- 
ever, is a rare gift. Most young persons will suc- 
ceed best by adhering to one plan, steadily ; making' 
changes only when there are very strong reasons for 
doing so. Those who adopt this course will find 
that their business will run along smoothly without 
many law-suits. Persons gifted with versatility, when- 
ever they start a new enterprise, should study new 
law corresponding to it. 

If there were more time we would discuss whether 
it is best to be enterprising or prudent ; to be liberal 
or economical ; to be courteous or summary ; and 
some other like riddles. But we must see what we 
pass on the way to Philadelphia. 



IX.— TO PHILADELPHIA, AND WHAT WE 
SEE THERE. 



" Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of our 
political creed shall be, equal States, equal men, and equal dollars, through- 
out the Union." Garfield : Chips from the White House, page 454. 



w 



ILE the Travelling Law-school have been 



talking about bargains and business, they 
have reached Newark. This place is famous for its 
manufacturing establishments. Here are made in 
great quantities, steam-engines, carriages, iron and 
tin ware, saddles, telegraphic instruments, rubber and 
celluloid articles, Russia leather, soap — in short, an 
endless variety of goods. It is said that a greater 
number of useful inventions have been produced by 
Newarkers than by the inhabitants of any other city 
in the land. You already know that importing is 
governed by the national government. Manufactur- 
ing is governed by the States; each State makes 

79 



80 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

laws for whatever factories are within its limits. 
The reason is, that importing is bringing goods from 
abroad, manufacturing is done at home. Now it is 
the American plan to have a national government 
for taking care of foreign affairs, State governments 
for domestic affairs ; thus the manufactories of 
Newark (and of Rahway, not far beyond) are subject 
to the laws of New Jersey, and the government at 
Washington has scarcely anything to say about them.' 
Soon we shall pass New Brunswick and Princeton, 
where are famous colleges. These, like factories, 
are governed more by State than by national laws. 
The colleges also make laws for the students. Just 
as people living in a town or city are expected to 
obey the laws of the corporation, and passengers in 
a railroad train must obey the company's regulations, 
so students in a college ought to obey the rules of 
the college. 

In this country the students of a college and the 
people of the town where the college is built are, 
usually, independent of each other ; the townspeople 
obey the town by-laws, and the students obey (or 
ought to obey) the college faculty ; but in many 



TO PHILADELPHIA, AND WHAT WE SEE. Bl 

foreign places it has come to pass that colleges have 
gained authority over the townspeople. This is 
partly because these colleges are so ancient and 
permanent. Thus the famous Oxford University, 
near London, is far older than any such institution 
in America. It is also larger and wealthier. Grad- 
ually it has acquired influence and authority over 
local affairs, until now it quite governs the town, 
instead of the town governing the University. 

Harper's Magazine once published a composition 
written in the year 1700, by an Oxford school-boy, 
upon "tyrants." It reads thus : 



A tyrant is a savage hideous beast. Imagine that you saw a 
certain monster armed on all sides with 500 horns on all sides 
dreadful fatnd with humane entrails, drunken with humane 
blood this is the fatal mischief whom they call a tyrant. 

William. 



From reading this composition we may conclude 
that school-boys were about the same then as now, 
but that governments were more oppressive two 
centuries ago than in our day. American boys do 
not hear or care enough about tyrants to write com- 



82 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

positions upon them, nor would they write such an 
exaggerated description. 

Soon we shall pass Trenton. This is a capital 
city, the capital of New Jersey. Here, therefore, is 
a State House, and here we should generally find a 
governor, and, at the proper time of year, a legisla- 
ture, just as in Boston. 

Now we travel onward, passing another boundary 
line without seeing it, and at length draw into Phil- 
adelphia. This is not a capital city. It is the 
largest city in Pennsylvania, but Harrisburg is the 
capital. But it is a very attractive metropolis, con- 
taining many beautiful and important buildings, also 
a delightful park, called Fairmount, where, about six 
years ago, the famous World's Fair was held. A 
world's fair is partly a national, partly a State matter ; 
thus the general government at Washington invited 
the foreign governments to send their manufacturers 
and workmen, but the State government at Harris- 
burg had most to say about the land and the build- 
ings for the exhibition. 

Philadelphia is a famous city in the history of our 
government. It was founded by William Penn, who 



TO PHILADELPHIA, AND WHAT WE SEE. 8$ 

set an excellent example of justice and kindness in 
dealing with the Indians inhabiting the land when he 
and his colony came. Here Franklin lived when he 
was a printer's boy. Here was written the Declara- 
tion of Independence ; here the congress of the 
colonies adopted it ; here it was brought forth and 
read to the assembled people, in the State House 
yard, on the Fourth of July, 1776. And here Con- 
gress often met until Washington City was founded. 

There is in Philadelphia a celebrated building 
called Independence Hall. It was originally the 
State House, but now it is stored with curiosities 
connected with the history of the government. It 
has been refitted to look as much as possible as it 
did in 1776. It contains the ancient and quaint 
desk on which the Declaration was signed ; the arm- 
chair of John Hancock ; the original draft of the 
Declaration, and the chairs and portraits of the 
signers. There is also a National Museum, where a 
great many similar relics are preserved ; one of the 
most curious is the Independence Bell, which rang 
to proclaim the adoption of the Declaration and 
the birth of the new nation. All these things are 



84 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

very interesting for a Travelling Law-school to 
see. 

Another very important building is the United 
States Mint. A mint is a kind of factory where 
money — such as eagles, dollars, halves and quarters, 
and dimes — are coined or manufactured. The whole 
business of making gold and silver money is done by 
the United States government ; the States are not 
allowed to make any, neither are towns, or cities, or ' 
individuals. A reason for this is that if any one who 
chose might manufacture money, there would soon 
be so many kinds as to perplex the people. There- 
fore all coins are made by the Federal government. 
If a person has gold or silver and wishes to have it 
made into money, he must send it to a mint — there 
are five mints in different parts of the country, but 
that at Philadelphia is the most important — and ask 
to have it coined. Coining is a very curious and 
beautiful process. The object of it is to make sure 
that the pieces shall contain exactly the right quantity 
of the metal. When gold is cut into round pieces of 
precisely the right size and weight, and pictures are 
stamped on each side, and curious marks called 



TO PHILADELPHIA, AND WHAT WE SEE. 85 

" milling " are pressed upon the edge, no person can 
take away any portion, however small, without de- 
tection ; for wherever any is taken, a little of the 
picture or milling will be spoiled. 

Only metallic money is made at mints; the bank- 
notes and treasury notes are printed at Washington. 
But these notes are not really money : they are only 
called so, because they are used instead of money. 
A bank-note is a promise by a bank to pay a certain 
sum. A treasury note or "greenback" is a promise 
by the United States government to pay the sum 
named. The reason why these paper promises can 
be used for money is that they are so much lighter 
and easier to carry, and that people generally under- 
stand they can get gold money for them whenever 
they wish. When a single bank becomes unable to 
pay money for its notes, people say that " the bank 
has failed; " and then its business is stopped. Some- 
times all the banks and the government also have 
been unable to pay gold money — or " specie " as it 
is called — for their promises. Such a state of things 
makes a great deal of trouble ; yet if people know 
that some day sufficient specie will be made, and the 



86 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

promises will be paid, they can use the paper prom- 
ises for a while as if they were really money. But if 
they did not expect that one day payment in specie 
would be made, they would soon refuse to take the 
paper promises for money, and the consequence 
would be that the bank-notes and treasury-notes, 
however prettily they were printed, would become 
worthless, except as pictures. It is of great im- 
portance that enough gold and silver money should 
be made at the mints to make it certain that the 
paper money all over the country can be paid in 
specie whenever any one who holds it chooses specie. 
This is what President Garfield meant by saying: 
" Let us have equality of dollars." 



X. — MONEY AND BANKS. 



" The State Bank system was a chaos of ruin, in wkich fhe business of the 
country was again and again engulfed. The people rejoice that it has been 
swept away, and they will not consent to its re-establishment. In its place we 
have the National Bank System, based on the bonds of the United States, and 
sharing the safety and credit of the government " — Garfield : Chips from 
the White Hotise, p. 420. 



A BANK is a sort of a mill-pond for money. 
When a natural cascade is not strong enough 
for turning the mill-wheel, men build a dam, and 
collect the water which runs from a hundred springs 
and brooks above, and this water they let down 
whenever needed, through a gate and a flume, in 
a little torrent, upon the wheel. All over the land 
are men who have worked a good many years and 
saved their money, and now they wish to work less 
and have their money at interest ; for they have 
more money than they need for their business. 
They are the springs and brooks from which money 



88 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

is running. There are other men who are young, 
industrious and enterprising ; they have not so much 
money as their business needs, but can make more 
profits if some one will lend them money to build 
stores or factories, buy goods or materials, hire clerks 
or workmen. Their wheels need a flood to turn 
them. For this purpose of turning the wheels of 
business, a few men in some chief town join in form- 
ing a bank, to receive the money of those who have 
more than they are using, and loan it to those who 
need more than they have. 

There are two ways in which money flows into a 
bank : " stock " and " deposits." When a bank is 
formed, each owner contributes such money as he 
wishes, one ten thousand dollars, another one 
thousand, another perhaps only five hundred. These 
sums, added together, form what is called the 
" capital " of the bank, which is used by the managers 
in conducting the business. Also business men of 
the neighborhood usually like to keep part of their 
money in the bank because it is a safer place than 
their stores and houses. A bank usually has solid 
vaults and strong fire-proof safes, for keeping money, 



MONEY AND BANKS. 89 

and a part of its business is to receive money for 
people and keep it safely until the owners wish to 
spend it. The moneys which persons lodge in the 
bank to be kept for them are called the " deposits,'' 
because they are "deposited," that is, left for safe 
keeping. Whenever they wish to spend any of the 
money they have deposited, they write a "check," 
asking the bank to pay so much, and the bank does 
so. Meantime the capital and the deposits together 
make a large sum. A small portion must be kept in 
the drawers for doing business from day to day, but 
the larger part forms what we may call a mill-pond of 
money, ready to be loaned to men who need more 
than they have in their business. 

The most common way of letting the money run 
from the bank's mill-pond upon the merchants' mill- 
wheels is called " discounting." Often the reason 
why a merchant needs money is because he has sold 
goods, but has had to take his pay in notes instead of 
cash. Ask some grown person to explain to you about 
taking notes. He does not wish, however, to w r ait for 
his money until the notes are paid, therefore he carries 
them to the bank and asks to have them discounted. 



90 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

A man who has not any notes given him by his cus- 
tomers sometimes himself makes a note to be dis- 
counted. When a note is brought to a bank for dis- 
count, or if the bank has not money to spare, or if the 
officers are not sure the note will be paid, they say 
no. Banks have several curious ways, which there is 
not time to explain, of making sure that the notes 
they discount will be paid when the time comes. 
Let us suppose, however, that the officers are willing 
to discount the note, and that it reads : 

For value received, I promise to pay to John Smith, or order, 
one thousand dollars, in two months from date. 

Thomas Johnson. 

The officers will compute two months' interest on 
one thousand dollars. They learned how to do this 
from the arithmetic, at school. This ten dollars is 
the " discount," or the bank's profit, for letting Mr. 
Smith have the money. The bank lets him have 
nine hundred and ninety dollars out of its mill-pond; 
and Mr. Smith writes on the back of the note : 

Pay to the Bank, or order. 

John Smith. 



MONEY AND BANKS. 9 1 

and gives the note to the bank officers. The nine 
hundred and ninety dollars will soon drive the mill- 
wheel of Mr. Smith's business. When the two 
months are ended, the bank collects the one thou- 
sand dollars from Mr. Johnson, and thus gets back 
the nine hundred and ninety, with ten additional for 
" discount " or profit. The discounts or profits are 
kept together for six months or a year, and then are 
divided among the stockholders, to pay them for let- 
ting the bank have the " capital." If Mr. Johnson 
should not pay the note promptly, Mr. Smith would 
be required to pay it. This plan of buying mer- 
chants' notes at a small profit is called " discount- 
ing," and is a large part of a bank's business. 

Whether obtaining discounts is wise or not depends 
on circumstances. Often it is foolish ; merchants 
frequently fail because they have had their notes dis- 
counted and have given a considerable part to the 
banks and spent the rest unwisely, when, if they had 
kept the notes and collected them when they became 
due, they would have had the whole of the money. 
And banks sometimes fail because the officers are 
imprudent or dishonest. But there is no doubt it is 



92 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

a good plan to have banks in operation, so that a pru- 
dent merchant can obtain discounts when it is really 
best to do so. If there were no banks, a great many- 
people would have to keep their savings in old stock- 
ings, or bureau drawers, or boxes buried in the ground, 
could get no interest upon it, and very likely it would 
be stolen ; and on the other hand, many merchants 
would be unable to do business for want of the use 
of that very money. Banks are excellent things, though' 
they need to be managed honestly, and used prudently. 
When a bank is formed, the stockholders, or men 
who contribute the capital, elect a few " directors" to 
direct how the business shall be done. These direc- 
tors elect a " president," who usually attends at the 
bank daily to superintend or preside over the man- 
agement. They also choose a " cashier," who takes 
care of the notes that are discounted, talks with the 
customers, writes letters, oversees the accounts and 
instructs the various clerks in their duties. There are 
also a " teller " to receive the deposits and to pay the 
checks; a " bookkeeper " to keep accounts; and 
a " porter" to go of errands, and lock the banking- 
house at night. Large banks in the cities have two 



MONEY AND BANKS. 93 

tellers, one to pay the checks written by persons who 
have deposited money in the bank, asking for some of 
it — he is called the paying, or first teller ; and one to 
receive the deposits, called the receiving or second 
teller; also two or three bookkeepers and clerks, 
such as a " discount clerk " to keep a list of the notes 
discounted; also several messengers. A place as 
" bank messenger " is an excellent one for a boy who 
is honest, pleasant, industrious, frugal, and shrewd 
about money ; for he has a good opportunity to grow 
up in the bank, and be chosen assistant bookkeeper, 
book-keeper, second teller, first teller and cashier in 
turn, and even president if he is successful in saving 
money enough to buy shares of stock. 

You will wish to know whether "banks are under 
State or national laws. Formerly nearly all banks 
were under State laws. Some of the States governed 
them very well, others not so well. About twenty years 
ago the United States government decided to establish 
some banks also ; and now, when people in any place 
wish to start a bank, they can do so under the law of the 
State, or under the United States law, as they please. 
Banks formed under the United States law are called 



94 TH E TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

National Banks ; you can always know them by their 
having the word " national " in the name. These 
banks have it for a part of their business to issue the 
bank notes which people use as money. A national 
bank deposits part of its capital in the Treasury 
department at Washington, and the Treasury depart- 
ment gives it, in return, a parcel of bank notes. It 
uses these notes in discounting notes for merchants, 
and in other business. Almost any grown person' 
can show you a national-bank note. Whenever any 
one who has a national-bank note desires to do so he 
can present it to the officers of the bank and demand 
gold for the sum which the note promises to pay, and 
they must give it to him. If they will not, there are 
arrangements by which the note can be sent to Wash- 
ington, and the gold for it will be paid there out of 
the capital which the bank deposited there on obtain- 
ing the notes. Thus the national-bank notes are per- 
fectly safe. In the whole twenty years no person has 
ever lost money by failure of a national bank to pay 
its notes. 



XL — IN WASHINGTON CITY. 



" Let any American who can, travel abroad, as I have done, and with the 
opportunity of witnessing what there is to be seen that I have had, and he will 
return to America a better American and a better citizen than when he went 
away. He will return more in love with his own country." — Grant: Chips 
from the White House, p. 341. 



THE Travelling Law-school has now reached 
Washington City ; and, for the first time, is not 
in any State. We are in the District of Colum- 
bia. The wise men who formed the Federal Govern- 
ment feared that if they chose a city within some 
State to be the capital of the new nation, that State 
might endeavor to make laws governing what the na- 
tional officers should do in its city ; therefore a dis- 
trict was set apart which should not be in any State, 
but under the sole control of Congress ; and in this 
district the capital city for the entire country, Wash- 
ington, has been built. The rule which holds almost 

95 



g6 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

everywhere else, that there are three governments, 
national, State and municipal, does not apply in 
Washington ; here are only two, the national and 
the city governments. Curiously, because the people 
of Washington are not in a State, they do not choose 
a representative in Congress, nor have they a senator, 
nor can they vote for President. 

Washington City is remarkable for its broad and 
nicely paved streets, and for open parks and circles' 
with ornamental fences and statues or monuments, 
and for magnificent public buildings. It has not so 
many fine stores as Boston, New York or Philadel- 
phia. The most interesting sights' for a Travelling 
Law-school are the establishments where the business 
of the government is done. You already know that 
most of the business of a State government is man- 
aged for the whole State in buildings and offices 
located in the capital city of the State. Just so, most 
of the business of the national government is con- 
ducted at Washington. 

The foremost government building is the Capitol, 
and it is useful to remember that capital, spelled with 
an a) means a city, but capital (spelled with an o) 



IN WASHINGTON CITY. 97 

means a building where the business of a govern- 
ment is done. The Capitol at Washington is a mag- 
nificent white marble edifice at the southerly end of 
the city, crowned with a dome which can be seen 
glistening in the sunshine from afar. In this Capitol 
the two houses of Congress meet to make laws for the 
nation, just as the Legislature of Massachusetts meets 
in the State House at Boston to make laws for the State. 
The House of Representatives is composed of members 
chosen by the people all over the land ; the Senate is 
composed of senators chosen two from each State by 
its legislature. As there are more than three hundred 
representatives, and only seventy-six senators, the rep- 
resentatives' hall is much the larger ; but both halls 
are spacious and beautifully furnished. The two 
Houses commence business early in December every 
winter, and are busy until spring or summer discuss- 
ing and passing laws ; but they can only make laws 
about those very general, national things which be- 
long to the Federal Government. They must not 
meddle with the subjects which belong to the State 
legislatures meeting in the capital cities of the States. 
In the Capitol also is the large hall of the Supreme 



98 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

Court, fitted with elegant mahogany furniture. As we 
enter it we shall find a range of seats in curved form 
near the doors for visitors. These seats are fenced 
by a railing, beyond which is a space furnished with 
tables and chairs and occupied by the lawyers. Be- 
yond this space is a raised " bench/^at which the nine 
judges sit, facing the lawyers. The duty of these 
judges is to decide questions about the United States 
laws. If people do not understand the laws of Con- 
gress, or will not obey them, a lawsuit is brought, 
lawyers are employed to state the questions to the 
judges, and the judges explain the law and decide 
the case. There are similar courts in all the States ; 
and the Washington judges do not meddle with the 
questions which belong to the State courts to decide. 
In the Capitol are also many other interesting 
things. A grand library so crowded full of books 
that one can hardly turn around in it ; a magnificent 
rotunda adorned with paintings of Revolutionary his- 
tory and surmounted with the dome, from which per- 
sons who clamber up the lofty stairs obtain a grand 
view ; a collection of statues ; a pair of bronze doors 
bearing historical pictures of exquisite workmanship ; 



IN WASHINGTON CITY. 99 

beautiful frescoed halls (where you can buy photo- 
graphs of almost everything) and stairways, and long, 
curious passages ; many " committee rooms," whither 
members of Congress go to discuss the new laws 
they think of making ; a room so beautifully finished 
in all sorts of marble that it is called the " marble 
room ; " also very ingenious machinery and apparatus 
for heating and lighting, and for pumping fresh air 
into the rooms. 

Toward the other end of the city is the President's 
house. The formal name for this is the Executive 
Mansion ; but it is commonly called the White-house. 
It is not modern and elegant like the Capitol, but 
old-fashioned ; it is, however, a very important build- 
ing. It is here that the President gives the orders 
necessary to make sure that the laws of Congress- will 
be obeyed. If people far away, east or west, north 
or south, refuse to obey the Federal laws, information 
is sent to the White-house, and the President and 
chief officers — the "secretaries," or " cabinet," as 
they are called — consider the case and give direc- 
tions what shall be done. But the secretaries do not 
take any part in making laws ; that duty belongs to 



IOO THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

Congress and the President. And the President and 
cabinet do not concern themselves whether people 
obey State or city laws, but attend only to the national 
laws. The lower rooms of the White-house are open 
to visitors, and are attractive, especially the portraits 
of former Presidents ; and the great East room, 
where the President's famous receptions are given. 

The immense amount of business which arises in 
enforcing the laws of the national government is 
divided among " departments ; " and the buildings 
allotted to the several departments are interesting. 
The State department is the office where all the busi- 
ness of the government with foreign countries is man- 
aged, under the charge of the Secretary of State. 
The Treasury department has a fine building near 
the White-house, where the Secretary of the Treasury 
manages the money business of the nation, the collec- 
tion of duties and taxes and payment of salaries and 
debts. Here are numerous rooms filled with innum- 
erable clerks busily employed in writing the govern- 
ment's accounts. 

And here are to be seen — if we can obtain leave 
— the printing-presses which make the national 



IN WASHINGTON CITY. 1 01 

bank-notes, the beautiful government bonds, and the 
treasury notes, and also a banking-room and money- 
vaults containing immense stores of money of all 
kinds. 

The Post-office department has charge of carrying 
mails throughout the whole country ; for this, being 
a general subject, is managed at Washington. The 
States do not meddle with it. The most interesting 
room is the dead-letter office. Hither are sent all 
letters whose owners cannot be found ; and here is a 
museum of queer things which have been found in 
"dead letters/' 

The Interior department has charge of business 
all over the country, especially at the West ; such as 
governing the Indians, taking the census of the peo- 
ple, selling lands to immigrants, and giving patents 
for inventions. 

The museum of the Patent office contains models 
and samples of almost every machine or apparatus ; 
and whoever invents anything new may deposh it 
here and obtain an exclusive right to make and sell 
it for seventeen years. The War and Navy depart- 
ments and department of Justice are less entertain- 



102 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

ing to visitors, but they are very important. 
There is also what is called the department of Ag- 
riculture. Its business is to assist the farmers. Sup- 
pose in some part of the country all the corn is wilting 
and dying, and the farmers cannot discover the cause. 
It would be proper for them to write and send 
specimens to the department of Agriculture, and 
some learned man there would study the matter. He 
would perhaps examine the plants with a powerful 
microscope, and find that they were infested with a 
tiny insect. Then he would try experiments till he 
discovered a cure ; and the department would send 
word to the farmers what to do to save their crops. 
There are in Washington many interesting things 
which have not much connection with government : a 
Smithsonian Institution which has collected a useful 
library and museum of natural science ; an Army 
Surgical Museum for showing doctors the ways in 
which soldiers are wounded in battle and how they 
may be cured, with the largest library of medical 
books in the world; two fine conservatories, or nur- 
series of flowers and plants, one, managed for Con- 
gress, not far from the Capitol, the other, managed 



IN WASHINGTON CITY. 103 

for the President, at the White-house ; the Corcoran 
Art Gallery of fine paintings : a National Observatory 
for studying the stars ; busy newspaper offices, where 
news of whatever is done by the public officers is sent 
to all the great cities. There is no place where in a 
few weeks' visit an American can learn so much as in 
Washington that is new and useful. And by a short 
and pleasant steamboat sail one can reach Mount 
Vernon, the home of George Washington, the Revolu- 
tionary commander and first President, for whom the 
city was named, and there can see the memorials of 
his life, and visit his grave. 



XII. — CHOOSING OFFICERS. 



<£ Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of him- 
self. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we 
found angels in the form of kings to govern him ? Let history answer the 
question." — Jefferson: Chips from the White-Home, "$• 109. 



VERY different ideas have prevailed in different 
countries upon the best way of forming a gov- 
ernment and choosing rulers. The American idea is 
to have the government planned by wise men whom 
the people choose for that express purpose, and to 
nave the chief officers chosen by the people. 

Another idea has been that rulers are ordained by 
Almighty God — or, as is sometimes said, that kings 
rule by "divine right " — and that they should enforce 
the laws of God found in the Bible. Some rulers 
have become such by what may be called "the right 
of the strongest : " an able general has organized a 

powerful army, conquered the country, and pro- 

104 



CHOOSING OFFICERS. 105 

claimed himself king or emperor, and the people have 
submitted rather than contend with the army. As 
ancient military kings generally made arrangements 
to have their sons succeed them, there arose an idea 
that royal power should be inherited as property is. 
Many persons believe that government ought to be 
managed by the wisest and best men of the country ; 
which would be an excellent plan if there were any 
certain way of knowing who are the wisest and best. 
The plan of electing rulers gives the people opportu- 
nity to choose their wisest and best men if they will 
take the pains to do so. In this country, although the 
people do not vote for nearly all officers, they vote for 
so many, and those who are elected understand so 
well the necessity of doing as the people wish in ap- 
pointing others, that, practically, the government is 
organized and the officers are selected chiefly accord- 
ing to the popular wish. This plan would perhaps not 
be so good for other nations as the modes they adopt, 
but it pleases the Americans. The wisest and best 
men are not always chosen ; but the people obey so 
much more willingly the officers whom they have 
elected, and the laws passed by their representatives, 



Io6 THE TRAVELLING LAW SCHOOL. 

that governing is simpler, easier and cheaper than 
it could be under the strongest men or than it might 
be under the wisest and best. 

Thus in this country the President is chosen almost 
directly by the people ; and they can choose one 
every four years. The Governors of States are chosen 
by the people, and so are representatives in Congress 
and members of both houses of State legislatures ; 
and their terms are short — mostly two years. Judges, ' 
in many States, and in all, chief officers of various 
kinds, are chosen by the people. The choosing is 
done at elections ; the grown men come each with a 
little folded paper called his " ballot," in which is 
written (so that no one can see unless the voter 
chooses to show it) the names of the officers he 
prefers ; these ballots are dropped in a box called the 
"ballot box," and are afterwards counted ; and the 
men whose names appear on the most ballots become 
the officers, for they are the ones preferred by the 
most voters. 

The system, to be sure, does not include senators 
of the United States, who are chosen by the State 
legislatures ; or judges and chief officers of the United 



CHOOSING OFFICERS. 107 

States, and those of some States who are appointed by 
the President, or the Governors. And a voter cannot 
always vote for the man he prefers : he has to choose 
among those nominated by a "caucus," or "conven- 
tion ; " but in one way or another the people exercise 
indirectly a powerful influence over the choice of offi- 
cers whom they do not elect. Indeed, the form of 
choosing a president is that the people in the various 
States elect a few of their wisest and best men, called 
" electors," to meet and choose a president ; but 
really the people make the choice, and the electors 
merely vote for the man whom they believe the people 
of their State prefer. 

If we should visit foreign countries and examine 
their governments, we should find that this idea of a 
choice of rulers by the people is steadily winning favor, 
especially in the most intelligent and prosperous na- 
tions. In England, anciently, some kings claimed to 
reign by divine right, others by conquest. But in 
modern times the crown is "inherited." Victoria be- 
came queen by right of birth, and, when she dies, her 
eldest son will be king; not because he is better qual- 
ified than any one else to rule, but because (in Eng- 



108 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

land) it is thought right that his mother's rank and 
authority, like her money or lands, should descend to 
him.' But at this day the English people have more 
real power than the queen. In Parliament, as in 
Congress, there are two houses ; and it is true that 
the members of the House of Lords, which resembles 
our Senate, are not chosen, but inherit their rank 
from their fathers; but the House of Commons, 
which resembles our House of Representatives, is, 
chosen by popular election, and it is this house which 
controls all the money, and holds the chief power. 
The queen cannot do anything of consequence in the 
government. She can only choose some member of 
Parliament to be her Prime Minister ; he, like our 
President, appoints a cabinet ; and the Prime Minis- 
ter and cabinet decide what shall be done. The 
orders are given in the queen's name, and she signs 
many of the more important papers, holds a very ele- 
vated rank, and is allowed a large income ; but the real 
governing is done chiefly by the men whom the people 
cheese for the House of Commons, or those whom 
the Commons are willing to sustain in the cabi- 
net. 



CHOOSING OFFICERS. 109 

England has not a written constitution, but its gov- 
ernment proceeds according to laws of Parliament 
and old customs ; hence the growth of the people's 
right to choose rulers has been gradual, though 
steady. In France and in Germany the governments 
were formed anew about twelve years ago, and popu- 
lar rights were introduced distinctly. France is a re- 
public, organized by a written constitution. The 
country is divided into departments resembling our 
States, and they manage local matters, while the Re- 
public governs affairs of general interest. This 
resembles the American plan. In France, however, 
the general government establishes a religion and 
maintains a system of education, an extensive police 
force and a burdensome army, and controls the news- 
papers ; while in America such matters are either 
governed by the States or let alone. 

The chief officer of France is a President chosen 
for seven years, not by the people, but by the Na- 
tional Assembly. This is as if Congress chose our 
President ; for the National Assembly answers to 
Congress. It has two houses, a Chamber of Depu- 
ties, like the House of Representatives, except that it 



IIO THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

is about half as large again, and a Senate which is 
almost four times as large as the Senate at Washing- 
ton. The deputies are chosen by popular vote in the 
departments, one for each arrondissement^ much as 
our representatives are chosen throughout the States, 
one in each congressional district. Senators hold 
office for life, instead of for six years as in this coun- 
try. The mode of choosing them is perplexing. Be- 
sides the National Assembly, there is a Council of 
State, which assists either house in framing laws 
wisely and carefully, and gives advice upon any ques- 
tions or proposed decrees submitted by the President. 
There is no similar body in England or in our Fed- 
eral government. The President has the co-operation 
of ministers of State in the performance of his duties, 
but their offices are not called " departments/' as at 
Washington. In France a department is a division 
of the country. Each department has its Gen- 
eral Council resembling a State Legislature. The 
members of a General Council are chosen by the 
people, but choose their own presiding officers, as is 
done in our legislatures. The firefet of a department, 
who corresponds to a governor, is appointed ; but 



CHOOSING OFFICERS. Ill 

mayors are elected by the various municipal councils. 

The German empire has been formed by a number 
of kingdoms which have retained their power to man- 
age local affairs, uniting by a written Constitution 
under an Imperial government which manages general 
subjects, such as citizenship, passports, commerce and 
duties on imports, coinage, paper money and bank- 
ing, patents and copyrights, railways, post-offices and 
telegraphs, etc. 

The general laws are made by a Federal Council, 
much like our Senate, but somewhat smaller (its 
members are appointed by the kingdoms which they 
represent, and all the delegates from one kingdom 
cast their votes as a unit), co-operating with an Impe- 
rial Diet, much like our House of Representatives, 
but somewhat larger (its members are chosen by the 
people throughout the empire). There is no election 
of President ; whoever is King of Prussia for the 
time being is President of the German Empire — 
German Emperor, he is called. This is as if the gov- 
ernor of some chief State were always to be President 
of the United States. In Switzerland also, as was 
explained in the first lesson to the Travelling Law- 



112 THE TRAVELLING LAW-SCHOOL. 

school, the people have a large share in choosing 
rulers. And it is probable that this principle of pop- 
ular elections will grow and extend in time to 
come. 



FAMOUS TRIALS 



FAMOUS TRIALS. 



I. — AUNT SYLVIA'S WILL: FORGERY. 

THERE was once a lady named Sylvia Rowland, 
who was growing old without having been 
married, but was very rich. She took her niece, 
named Hetty, to live with her as an adopted daugh- 
ter. This niece had inherited from her mother who 
was dead, a little property, but it was not much ; her 
father had obtained almost all the mother's property, 
and by means of it and his success in business had 
become even richer than the aunt. In course of time 
aunt Sylvia made a will giving her money to her niece. 
She gave this will to her niece to keep ; and when a 
few years later the aunt died, the niece expected that 
the property would come to her. But it was then 
found that aunt Sylvia had made a later will, giving 
the property quite differently. 

7 



8 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

A will is a paper saying how property shall be given 
after the owner's death. Most persons wish to use 
what they own as long as they live ; they cannot there- 
fore give, it away during lifetime. The law allows 
writing down one's " will " ; that is, one's wish as to 
what shall be done with the property one leaves, and 
the property must be given to the persons named in 
the will. If one makes several wills, the one made 
last is the one to be obeyed. Thus when aunt Syl- 
via's second will was found, every one said : " Oh, 
the old lady changed her mind towards the last, and 
thought she would not give her whole fortune to her 
niece." And ordinarily any one has a right to change 
his mind and make a later will, and this overthrows 
all that were earlier made. 

But suppose a person has made a solemn contract 
not to change the will first made? Suppose aunt 
Sylvia, for example, made a bargain with niece Hetty 
that the niece should have her money when she died ; 
ought she to change her mind secretly, and make a 
new will without telling Hetty of it ? Certainly not. 

Niece Hetty declared that she and aunt Sylvia had 
made such a bargain. Her story was somewhat like 



AUNT SYLVIA S WILL : FORGERY. 9 

this : " Aunt Sylvia was displeased with my father for 
his taking so much of my mother's fortune away from 
me. She said that my mother was a Howland, and 
her money came from the Howlands, and ought to 
have gone to me, her daughter. She told me she 
was determined my father should not get any more 
Howland money if she could prevent it ; and that if 
I would make a will giving whatever I should leave 
when I died to people satisfactory to her, she would 
make her will leaving her money to me. Her mo- 
tive was to make sure that my father would not inherit 
her money or mine. I did make just such a will as 
she wished. She dictated her will to me, and I wrote 
it on a slate, and copied it on sheets of paper. Then 
she signed it. She gave me her will to keep, and I 
gave her mine. And we each promised the other not 
to change our wilts." 

The people who would have aunt Sylvia's money 
under the second will, said : " All that is only your 
story ; you have nothing to show to prove it." 

"Yes, I have," said niece Hetty; "aunt Sylvia dic- 
tated another paper, which I copied for her and she 
signed, telling the whole matter." 



10 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

And sure enough there were found two copies of a 
paper called the "second page" of the will, in niece 
Hetty's handwriting, but signed with aunt Sylvia's 
name, declaring very solemnly that the first will should 
never be changed. But those who wished the sec- 
ond will to be established would not believe that aunt 
Sylvia ever signed this " second page." They accused 
niece Hetty of having "forged " aunt Sylvia's name; 
that is, of having written the name herself, imitating ' 
the aunt's handwriting. 

Forgery is imitating a person's signature, or making 
a fictitious document in order to obtain property. 
This is a grave crime, and severely punished when- 
ever detected. And it can nearly always be detected. 
Almost all business is managed, property sold or 
money paid, by means of little written papers to 
which people sign their names. Young and inexperi- 
enced persons when they see business men dashing 
off their signatures to checks, notes, receipts and or- 
ders, are apt to imagine it very easy and safe to imitate 
a man's signature, and by that means get some of his 
property. A' small boy who entered a lawyer's office 
as messenger, but had never been taught anything 



AUNT SYLVIAS WILL: FORGERY. II 

about forgery, saw the lawyer sign checks and send 
them to the bank, where the money was always paid ; 
and he supposed he could get money for himself in 
that way. So one day he signed the lawyer's name 
to a check for ten dollars and presented it at the 
bank. As the cashier was good natured and saw 
that the boy was ignorant, he only laughed at him, tore 
up the check, and told the lawyer that he had better 
teach his errand boy something about forgery. If he 
had been a stern man, or had thought that the boy 
understood what he was doing, he would have sent 
him to prison. Business men, especially clerks in 
banks, acquire great skill in knowing signatures and 
detecting imitations or forgeries. For no two natural 
handwritings are precisely alike. Almost every 
person has a peculiar way of making some letters. 
Besides this there is what is called a general charac- 
ter of each hand which distinguishes it from others. 
Even when one person imitates another's signature 
and does so very skilfully, there will be some minute 
differences. Ordinary people may be deceived, 
but those who are trained in the scientific ways 
of detecting forgeries can almost always distin- 



12 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

guish a genuine signature from an imitated one. 

Accordingly there was a long trial to ascertain 
whether aunt Sylvia really signed the " second page " 
of her will, or niece Hetty forged her name. For 
certain reasons the trial stopped before this was 
learned. But it is very certain that if there was an 
attempt at forgery it did not succeed. The trial 
shows that forgery is exceedingly difficult and dan- 
gerous. 

Not only is there a difference between two persons' 
handwritings, but any one person scarcely ever signs 
his name twice precisely alike. You can try the ex- 
periment by writing your name on each of two not 
very thick pieces of paper, and then laying one over 
the other against a window pane. See whether one 
signature will exactly fit the other. The persons who 
accused niece Hetty of forging aunt Sylvia's name 
said that she had done it by " tracing it," that is, by 
putting the genuine signature of the will against the 
window and laying the other paper over, so that she 
could see the name through it, and then tracing let- 
ters on the second paper to correspond precisely with 
those underneath. If she did so her plan was ingen- 



AUNT SYLVIA'S WILL : FORGERY. 1 3 

ious, but it made the false signature too much like 
the real one. A learned professor testified that he 
had calculated the matter mathematically, and that 
there was only one chance among two thousand six 
hundred and sixty-six millions of millions of millions 
that aunt Sylvia could have written her name three 
times as precisely alike as it appeared upon the will 
and the two copies of the " second page." 

The microscope is of great use in detecting for- 
geries. If the forger sketches the name first with a 
pencil, and writes with ink over the pencil, as is often 
done to make the imitation more perfect, the micro- 
scope will reveal the lead-pencil marks ; or, if the 
forger has rubbed these out, the microscope will re- 
veal traces of the rubbing. 

A sea-captain once hired a chronometer for use on 
his voyage and signed a printed receipt for it; but 
his ship was wrecked and he never brought the chro- 
nometer back. The chronometer man brought a law 
suit, for he claimed that the sea-captain had promised 
to pay for it if it should be lost. He produced his 
receipt, and, behold, it contained two lines written in 
a blank space above the captain's signature, making 



14 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

just such a promise. The sea-captain swore that 
these lines were not written when he signed the 
receipt, and declared that they must have been forged 
afterward. But the lawyer for the chronometer man 
said: "Look at the writing under a microscope. " 
This was done, and showed that the top of a letter in 
the sea-captain's name ran up into the- bottom of a 
letter, in the written promise, and that the inks of the 
two letters had mingled while they were fresh, form- ' 
ing a sort of puddle. In other words, the sea-captain 
had signed his name while the ink of the promise to 
pay for the chronometer was still wet. 

Another way of using the microscope is to magnify 
two writings upon large screens, and take photographs 
of the images appearing on the screens. When 
these photographs are compared, all the minute 
peculiarities of each handwriting can be very plainly 
seen. 

Some skilful persons say that every one's hand 
trembles a very little while he is writing, and that no 
two hands tremble precisely alike. This trembling 
— nerve-tremor, it is called — can be seen by the 
microscope in the letters ; thus if one should see that 



aunt Sylvia's will : forgery. 15 

the aunt's name signed underneath a paper in the 
niece's handwriting showed the same nerve-tremor 
with what was written by the niece, he would declare 
that the niece wrote the name. 

Forgeries are detected by various accidental circum- 
stances. A cadet at West Point was once accused 
of forging a letter which was written on a half sheet 
of note paper; and when his desk was searched 
the other half of the same sheet was found among his 
stationery. His accusers considered this strong 
proof. Suppose a will dated 1870 were written on 
paper having a peculiar watermark, and the manufac- 
turer of the paper were to say that he did not begin 
making the paper with that mark until 1878 ; it 
would be natural to think that the will was forged. 
Some persons who were plotting to forge a deed 
thought it would be shrewd to put a sixpence under 
the wax seal, and did so ; and when they testified 
about the signing and sealing, they said that the 
deed they saw signed had a sixpence put under 
the seal. They thought the lawyers would break the 
wax, and when they found a sixpence there would be- 
lieve all the rest of the story. The wax was broken, 



1 6 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

and the sixpence found. But the lawyer who was 
against the deed said, " Examine the date of the six- 
pence ! " And, behold the sixpence was dated sev- 
eral years later than the deed. This proved the 
forgery. 

Forgers are often detected by little mistakes they 
make, especially mistakes in spelling. If a teacher 
knew that a boy in his school was wont to misspell 
money thus, "munney," and if this boy should one 
day bring what seemed to be a letter from his father 
to the teacher, asking the teacher to give the boy 
some " munney " for Christmas, would not the 
teacher suspect that the pupil had written the letter 
himself and signed his father's name ? Well, this 
actually happens in law suits. 

A person named Alexander learned that a man of 
the same name had died leaving property but no 
heirs. He thought he would present himself as heir 
and claim the estate. He forged a parcel of family 
letters describing himself as heir. But the lawyer 
against him observed that several words were mis- 
spelled alike in all the letters. When the case was 
tried the lawyer asked that Alexander write some- 



aunt sylvia's will : forgery. 17 

thing from the judge's dictation, and he gave to be 
dictated a paragraph containing these same words. 
The unlucky forger misspelled them all in the same 
way. Then they showed him what he had done, and 
accused him plumply of having forged the letters ; 
and he at length confessed. Thus it is almost impos- 
sible to make fictitious papers or signatures without 
incurring disgrace and punishment. 



II. — COLVIN AND THE BOORNS: CON- 
FESSIONS. 

MOST persons when they hear that a culprit 
has confessed his crime, consider that ot 
course he must be guilty. " What is the need of any ' 
proof if the man has confessed?" Many novels and 
stories are written upon the idea that an admission of 
guilt is abundantly sufficient to warrant punishing 
the person who makes it. But lawyers and judges 
have observed that confessions are very often fictitious. 

This is well illustrated by the strange story of Colvin 
and the Booms. 

Seventy years ago there lived in Manchester, Vt., 

a family named Boorn, composed of father and 

mother, two sons Jesse and Stephen, and a daughter 

who was married to a man named Colvin. This 

Colvin was of weak and gradually decaying mind ; did 

but little to support himself and wife; was wont to 

18 



COLVIN AND THE BOORNS ! CONFESSIONS. 19 

ramble away, no one knew whither, for days and 
weeks at a time ; and Jesse and Stephen Boorn 
found fault with him and treated him unkindly for 
his idle ways and because he and his wife depended 
on the Boorn family for much of their support. 

At length Colvin disappeared on one of his erratic 
excursions, and failed to return. Some months 
afterwards the mystery was explained by finding that 
he had strayed, in a demented way, to New Jersey ; 
but at the time when our story opens he was missing, 
and the neighbors were beginning to inquire what 
had become of him, and to discuss whether the 
Boorn boys could have carried their ill treatment of 
him so far as to kill him. No wonder that when 
people were talking of such an affair some of them 
should dream of it ; and one old man dreamed 
" three nights running," that Colvin came to his bed- 
side and disclosed that he had been murdered, and 
that his body was buried in an old, disused potato- 
cellar. The story of this dream led people to ran- 
sack that cellar, and some bones were found. These, 
as was ultimately shown, were remains of some 
animal ; but when they were first found they were 



20 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

supposed to be Colvin's, and a great excitement 
arose against Jesse and Stephen Boorn ; nearly 
every one believing that they had killed their 
brother-in-law to prevent his continuing a burden on 
the family, and that his spirit had revealed the crime 
by the dream ! They were at once arrested and 
placed in jail, where many of the neighbors visited 
them, urging them to confess. 

And they did confess. Jesse first described how 
the three were at work together in the field, when 
Stephen beat Colvin senseless with a club, after 
which the body was carried to the deserted cellar and 
buried. Stephen, who at first denied the charge, 
afterward made a written confession, substantially 
supporting Jesse's story; he, however, laid blame on 
Colvin, saying that the latter began the quarrel and 
struck the first blow. 

Upon these two confessions — there was scarcely 
any other evidence — the two Booms were convicted 
of murder. But it is very common to show some 
mercy to offenders who confess crimes and aid in 
bringing others to justice, and the legislature, prob- 
ably for this reason, changed Jesse's punishment to 



■ COLVIN AND THE BOORNS : CONFESSIONS. 21 

imprisonment for life ; leaving Stephen sentenced 
to death. 

Now comes the strange part of the story. Both 
the confessions were false! Colvin was alive and 
well all the while ! As a last hope, Stephen Boom's 
counsel published an advertisement asking whether 
any person could give information of the missing 
man. This came to the notice of people in New 
Jersey, who sent word that a person resembling 
Colvin was working as hired man on a farm in Dover, 
in that State. This man was brought to Vermont, 
and sure enough, he was the veritable Colvin. Then 
the excitement was greater than ever. Crowds of 
people rushed into the court-room to see the returned 
wanderer. Cannon were fired in honor of the news, 
and there was great rejoicing. The two prisoners 
were of course very soon set free. 

What can have been the motive of the two Boorns 
for making these false confessions ? 

Every one around them was urging them to confess, 
and the probability is that they believed they would 
surely be found guilty — perhaps, indeed, they were 
not certain but that Colvin had died somewhere of a 



2 2 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

beating received from them — and that they hoped 
by .confessing to obtain lighter punishment. This 
hope indeed was realized in Jesse's case; in Stephen's 
it was disappointed. 

Nowadays courts and judges are very strict in for- 
bidding people to urge a prisoner to confess his crime. 

The rule is that if he makes confession entirely of 
his own accord it may be received against him ; but 
if he was urged, if any promises or threats were made 
to induce him to speak, what he says goes for noth- 
ing. The famous case of the Boorns has saved a 
great many accused persons from being convicted 
upon confessions wrested from' them by policemen 
and jailers. In ancient times and foreign lands it 
has been common to even torture prisoners in order 
to induce them to confess. Nothing of this kind is 
allowed by our law. Prisoners must be treated 
humanely, and left wholly at liberty to confess or 
deny as they choose. 

False confessions are made from various motives. 
Persons who were poor, friendless and unhappy, 
have been known to accuse themselves of a crime in 
order to be imprisoned, or even in order to be put to 



COLVIN AND THE BOORNS : CONFESSIONS. 23 

death. After the famous " Great Fire of London," a 
Frenchman came forward with a story that he kin- 
dled the fire to earn a bribe which had been paid 
him for doing so ; and he was executed for the sup- 
posed crime. Probably he had become weary of life, 
yet could not quite resolve to destroy himself. Some 
persons have such a diseased ambition to be talked 
about that they will make false confessions. About 
twenty years ago there was a mysterious murder in 
New York city, of a dentist named Burdell ; and 
while police and people were making every effort to 
detect the offenders, a person avowed himself guilty. 
But inquiry showed he had no part in the crime ; he 
only said so to obtain the temporary notoriety. The like 
has been done in many instances. A fit of insanity, 
or of drunkenness, may lead a person to confess 
something which he has not done. 

Sometimes, no doubt, persons make fictitious con- 
fessions in order to disgrace or injure others whom 
they charge with having taken part in the offence, 
and sometimes the opposite happens — a relative or 
friend will assume a crime in order to shield the real 
offender. For example : In England, once, two 



24 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

brothers were suspected of a highway robbery. They 
were in fact guilty, but a third brother, younger than 
they, confessed that he committed it, upon which he 
was seized and they were let alone. They escaped 
to America, after which the younger brother retracted 
his confession and made clear proof that he was 
innocent. Of course he could not be punished for 
the robbery which he did not commit ; and his guilty 
brothers could not be, for they were out of reach. / 
Suppose a man enters the police office in a Massa- 
chusetts town and says : " Several years ago I stole 
money in Boston, and my conscience troubles me so 
much about it that I have come to -give myself up to 
be punished. " If the officers are not shrewd — if 
they take it for granted that because the man has 
confessed he must be guilty — they will very likely 
send the man to Boston to be tried; and of course 
they must feed him and pay his car fare on the jour- 
ney. When the party reach Boston the officers find 
that no one knows anything about any such theft as 
their prisoner confessed, and they have to set him at 
liberty. Thus he has been carried to Boston without 
having to pay anything; which is just what he wished. 



COLVIN AXD THE BOORNS : CONFESSIONS. 25 

Whenever we hear or read that a person has 
admitted himself guilty of a crime, we are not to be 
absolutely sure, at once, that he is so, but must re- 
member that fictitious confessions are not uncommon. 



III. — THE STORY OF JENNIE DIVER: 
STEALING. 

TENNIE DIVER was a poor girl born in Ireland 
about one hundred and fifty years ago. Pier 
original name was Mary Young. After her parents 
died, she went to London and tried to earn a living; 
but all this occurred while yet there were very few 
day schools or books, and no Sunday-schools or chil- 
dren's magazines or newspapers ; hence the poor girl 
had not been taught anything but sewing ; and she 
could not get enough employment. She was nearly 
starving when she made the acquaintance of some 
thieves who invited her to join their society, promising 
to teach her how to steal. There is a famous story of 
a poor boy in London named Oliver Twist, who fell 
among thieves in nearly the same way ; but he had 

knowledge or good conscience enough to run away 

26 



JENNIE DIVER : STEALING. 27 

from them the moment he found that their business 
was stealing ; and after various hard adventures, he 
was adopted by a good family and reared to be useful 
and happy. The story of his struggles and success is 
very interesting. This girl consented to remain with 
the thieves. They gave her the name Jennie Diver. 
She practised the tricks they taught her, and at length 
became very skilful. For example, she one day went 
to a church where she heard there would be a crowd, 
and watching the people until she saw a gentleman 
wearing a diamond ring, she held out her hand to him. 
The gentleman seeing a young lady extending her 
hand as if she wished to be helped up the steps, 
reached his hand to assist her, and while he was doing 
so she contrived to twist off the ring. At another 
time she fitted herself with false arms and hands and 
attended church, and while she sat with her false 
hands folded, apparently listening to the service, her 
real hands were busy stealing the watches of the 
ladies sitting near her. 

These are only examples of a great many tricks she 
practised. For a long time she was successful and 
escaped detection, but at length a lady feeling Jen- 



28 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

nie's hand in her pocket taking out some money, 
cav ght her by the gown, and she was arrested and 
taken to court to be tried. She was found guilty. 
At that time the punishment for stealing (more than 
a shilling's worth) was death, and poor Jennie was 
accordingly hung. At the present day she would 
only be sent to prison and fined, but even these pun- 
ishments disgrace any one for the rest of life. 

Young persons are more likely to be tempted to 
steal than to commit any other crime ; and often 
stealing seems easy and safe. It really is very dan- 
gerous and disgraceful. The story of Jennie Diver 
shows that if so cunning and dexterous a girl as she 
could not escape detection, an ordinary boy or girl 
cannot hope to. The money you covet may seem 
within safe reach ; the fruit desired may be tempt- 
ingly handy; the jewelry you admire, the watch, the 
dress, the book you would take, may appear to be 
unguarded ; and often a person is not detected the 
first time. Generally, however, a thief is at last 
caught, and is disgraced for life. 

One reason for this is, that detectives are even 
more ingenious than ordinary thieves. A store- 



JENNIE DIVER : STEALING. 29 

keeper who suspects a clerk of stealing will some- 
times mark a piece of money or a bill with minute, 
peculiar marks, and put it in the drawer. If, next 
day, he searches the clerk's pockets and finds there 
the marked money, he knows that the clerk has been 
stealing from the drawer. Many thieves have been 
caught by a detective who pretended to assist them, 
but really was watching to see what they would do. 
For instance, a man was once suspected of stealing 
his neighbor's cattle by means of branding them 
with his mark in place of the mark of the real owner. 
— Ask some grown person to explain to you how cattle 
on the Western prairies are branded with their owners' 
tokens. — One day a detective in disguise came to 
the farmer's house and asked if he did not wish 
to hire a herdsman. 

The farmer said "yes," and questioned the dis- 
guised detective, who answered all the questions so 
satisfactorily that the farmer hired him. He then 
began watching everything which the farmer did, 
until at length he detected him in changing marks of 
cattle. Then he threw off his disguise, arrested the 
farmer, and took him to court to be tried. However 



30 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

safe everything may appear, no one can ever know 
but that there is an ingenious trap set for him by detec- 
tives. Another reason why stealing is so dangerous 
is that persons cannot sell or even show stolen prop- 
erty anywhere in the neighborhood without risk of 
being asked where they got it. It is considered 
evidence of stealing that a person is found with the 
stolen property and cannot give an explanation show- 
ing that he came by it innocently. Another reason 
is, that even if a thief is not actually detected, he is 
usually suspected, and when the neighbors once begin 
to suspect a person of stealing they will not employ 
him, invite him to their houses, or make friends with 
him any way. 

Young persons are sometimes perplexed to know 
what they ought to do in case of finding anything 
which has been lost. A great many stories are rela- 
ted about this. The rule is, that whoever finds a lost 
thing ought to return it to the owner; but if the 
owner cannot be found, the finder has a better right 
to the thing than any one else. If one should find a 
purse of money lying on the sidewalk, and should pick 
it up saying to himself, " I will hide this money and 



JENNIE diver: stealing. 31 

spend it," this would be stealing. But if he should 
take it meaning to advertise it and make inquiries of 
the owner, there would be no theft : and after he had 
made proper efforts to find the owner without success, 
he could lawfully spend the money himself. The 
chief question is, What was the intention in the 
finder's mind ? This is sometimes difficult to be 
ascertained. 

In one instance a horse jumped over his owner's 
fence and ran along the highway several miles, 
when he was caught by a farmer. This farmer put 
the animal in his barn and began to use him, driving 
him to market and to meeting, etc., but he did so 
publicly. At length the owner heard where the 
horse was, and made a complaint for stealing. But 
the judges said that the farmer had used the horse 
so openly that he probably did not intend to steal 
it, but was only using it till the owner should appear. 
True, he ought to have made inquiries, but omitting 
to make inquiries is not as bad as theft. In an 
instance in a city there was a little girl who owned 
a canary bird which she kept in a cage hanging 
against the fence in the yard. Some children who 



32 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

lived next door unhooked the cage, carried it into 
their house and hid it; but they did this in joke, and 
to tease their neighbor, and when they thought they 
had kept it long enough to frighten her, they put 
it back. However, they were accused of stealing; 
but the judge said that taking a thing temporarily 
for fun or mischief is not stealing, though it may 
be very wrong. In Iowa a flood once swept away 
a great part of a village, and all sorts of articles 
were left on the banks of the stream when the water 
subsided. A man found some clothes and some 
valuable papers. The clothes were not marked, the 
papers bore the owner's name, but both belonged 
to the same person. The finder carried them all 
home. Not long afterwards he was prosecuted for 
stealing the clothing. But it appeared that he had 
made inquiries for the owner of the papers, therefore 
the judges said that he would probably have given 
up the clothing as soon as he learned the owner, and 
therefore he must be acquitted. Intention to appro- 
priate the thing to one's own use is necessay in theft. 
Accordingly, if a person who finds anything behaves 
as if he meant to hide it and use it himself, he is 



JENNIE diver: stealing. 33 

likely to be pronounced a thief. For instance, when 
some workmen were digging in a street one of them 
found a roll of about two hundred dollars in bank 
notes, sticking between the stones. His duty was to 
make known that he had found the money, and to 
inquire for the owner. Instead of this he concealed 
it and spent part of it the same day. The judges 
said that this was stealing. There was once a man 
who dropped a sack of coffee out of his wagon while 
he was driving along a country road. About a mile 
beyond he missed it, and then returned, looking- 
for it, and asking persons whom he met. One of 
these very persons had found the sack and hidden it, 
apparently meaning to come for it some time when 
he could safely do so, and when the wagoner inquired 
of him he denied having seen it. However, he was 
caught, and the judges said he must be punished as 
a thief. All honest persons who find anything of 
value, endeavor to restore it to the owner. 



IV. — LOUIS VICTOR'S SUFFERINGS: 
PHOTOGRAPHS. 

' I ^HERE was once an orphan asylum called the 
-* " Shepherd's Fold." Children who had not 
parents to care for them were sent there to be reared, 
and benevolent people gave money from time to time, 
to buy food and clothing for the children and pay for 
their education. At length it became suspected that 
the manager was keeping this money for himself and 
was neglecting his little wards. The officers of a 
society for Prevention of Cruelty heard of this, and 
they visited the asylum, and found that it was true ; 
the poor little children were nearly starved, and were 
shockingly ragged, dirty and sickly. The officers 
immediately sent for carriages, put the children in 
them and drove with them to another asylum, where 
they could be fed, washed and clothed. And in a 
short time the selfish, cruel manager was tried for his 

34 



louis victor's sufferings. 35 

misconduct, and was found guilty, and sent to prison. 
The officers were greatly helped in proving that he 
was guilty, by photographs of one of the children, 
named Louis Victor. Before this boy was sent to 
the asylum his friends had his photograph taken ; it 
showed him to be a strong, hearty, fine-looking boy 
about three years old, sitting up very erect, holding 
a little gun, and wearing a bright, animated expression 
of face. When the officers brought him away from 
the Shepherd's Fold they had his photograph taken 
again ; it showed him very emaciated and sick, lying 
on a little couch so weak that he could not lift his 
head, and looking as if he were at the point of dying 
of starvation. On the trial the witnesses testified 
that Louis had scarcely any food at the Fold, and 
that he grew sickly for want of nourishment ; but 
recovered soon after he was taken to the better asy- 
lum. Then these two photographs were shown to 
the jury. The judges said that photographs were a 
very good means of exhibiting little Louis Victor's 
sufferings. Thus we see that photographs may be 
very useful in trials in court. And in fact they are 
often used both in explaining how the person or thing 



36 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

photographed looked on some former day ; and also 
in detecting and arresting persons who have run away. 

Another trial in which a boy's photograph was use- 
ful in obtaining justice for him, has occurred. A 
farmer took the lad to live in his family, and work in 
his house and upon the farm. The boy did not rise 
in the mornings so early as his employer wished, and 
the latter one morning went up to the boy's sleeping- 
room, and while he was in bed and undressed, whipped 
him very severely and cruelly. The friends of the 
boy immediately had a photograph taken, showing 
how his back was bruised and wounded by the blows, 
and then brought a lawsuit against the harsh employer. 
When the jury saw the picture, they said that the 
man should pay five hundred dollars damages. If 
there had not been a picture taken at the time, most 
likely the farmer and his wife and children would 
have sworn that the boy was hurt only very little, and 
the jury would not have known whether to believe 
them or the friends of the boy. 

There lived in Baltimore ten or twelve years ago, 
a man of the simple name of Goss, and one bearing 
the more complex name Udderzook. They were 



LOUIS VICTOR S SUFFERINGS. 37 

brothers-in-law. The man of simple name seems to 
have been of confiding mind, the other to have pos- 
sessed a cunning, crafty disposition. They united in 
a plan of making money by cheating insurance com- 
panies ; thus: What are called "life insurance poli- 
cies," for $25,000, were taken out on the life of 
Goss — that is, the insurance companies agreed to 
pay his family the money when he should die — then 
the two obtained the body of a man looking some- 
what like Goss, laid it in Goss' paint-shop, and set 
fire to the shop ; then Goss ran away, while Udder- 
zook staid by the fire, assisted in bringing out the 
dead and burned body, made believe to lament and 
cry because his dear brother-in-law Goss had been 
burned to death, and in course of time demanded the 
insurance money from the companies. 

Meanwhile Goss wandered about awhile, and at 
length strayed into Pennsylvania, calling himself 
" Wilson," and waiting for Udderzook to collect the 
money and bring him his share. But Udderzook 
had a different plan. He came to where Goss, called 
" Wilson," was hiding, coaxed him to take a walk in 
a wild forest, and there killed him. This was very 



38 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

crafty and cunning, for he thought that no one 
who knew Goss would ever look for him in those 
woods, because they all supposed he had been burned 
in the paint-shop ; and that if the body should ever 
be found by the people of the neighborhood, they 
would suppose it to be the stranger they had heard 
called " Wilson," and no one would particularly 
care. But there was a photograph of the murdered 
man. When he went to the insurance company "s 
office about his policy, he and the agent became 
friendly, and one day they had their likenesses taken 
on one card, side by side. This photograph was 
shown, as it happened, to people "who had seen the 
man called " Wilson," and they recognized the com- 
panion of the agent in the picture as their Mr. 
"Wilson," though really Goss. Thus the crime was 
detected, and the murderer was found guilty (and 
hung) by means of a photograph. No matter how 
cunning a person's plans of committing a crime are, 
there is very apt to be some little accident which 
leads to his exposure and punishment. 

Some of the ways in which pictures are used in 
searching for criminals who have run away, are 



LOUIS VICTOR S SUFFERINGS. $9 

curious. Suppose that a clerk in a bank, steals a 
large sum of money and travels to the South or West. 
The police officers immediately inquire for a picture 
of the man. When they obtain one, they have it 
photographed, printing a great many copies. Under 
each is printed a description of the clerk, and an 
offer of a reward to any person who will report 
having seen him. Circulars containing the picture 
and reward are sent to ever so many people living in 
the part of the country to which the clerk has gone. 
In a great many cases some person meets him, no- 
tices that he resembles the picture, and sends word 
to the police, and they come and arrest him. Of 
course such runaways try various means of disguising 
themselves so as not to be recognized, but that is 
a very difficult thing to do. Thus a criminal can 
very often be detected at a great distance from home 
by means of distributing copies of his photograph. 

A man in England robbed another of his watch 
and sold the chain, and then took passage to this 
country by a sail vessel. The police obtained his 
photograph and showed it to the jeweler, and he 
said, "That is the likeness of the man who sold 



40 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

me the chain." They then took the jeweler and the 
picture with them, and sailed in a swifter vessel to 
this country, arriving before the criminal could. 
When his vessel reached the wharf the English 
policemen were standing there, waiting to arrest him, 
and having the photograph to prove that he was the 
guilty man. A fugitive criminal named Chastine 
Cox, was caught by a newspaper reporter, in Boston, 
by means of his photograph. 

Of course photographs must not be used in trials 
unless they are faithful and accurate. Sometimes 
they are unskilfully or carelessly taken, and do not 
represent the original correctly. Sometimes they are 
purposely distorted ; a picture can be taken as a 
caricature, which will be very absurd. 

A remarkable instance of this is the case of a 
skilful photographer who contrived means of casting 
upon a card a dim, shadowy appearance resembling 
a ghost as people commonly imagine ghosts. He 
advertised that he would take pictures of the spirits 
of persons who were dead! And there were people 
who believed that this was possible, and who paid 
him a good deal of money for such pictures. 



LOUIS victor's sufferings. 41 

A gentleman whose wife was dead, came for one, 
and was taken with a faint outline of a lady standing 
behind him, which the photographer pretended was 
a likeness of the wife. 

A lady who had lost her daughter was taken with 
an indistinct, filmy representation of a little girl 
standing by her side ; and he told her that it was 
the daughter. 

Nothing of this kind could be true, therefore be- 
fore long the artist was prosecuted for swindling. 
If pictures representing ghosts can be made, of 
course there may be ways in which a deceitful person 
could make very untruthful cartes devisite. The judges 
are careful to allow only veritable likenesses to be 
used in trials. 

Photographs are used in many other ways. In 
large cities the police officers keep what is called a 
" Rogues' Gallery," a room in which are hung por- 
traits of thieves, swindlers, and other offenders who 
have been arrested. These are of great service in 
identifying criminals. The criminals know this, and 
some of them make great effort to prevent a good 
likeness ; they twist their faces and limbs so as to 



42 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

look as strange as possible while they are before the 
camera, and their pictures are very queer. Copies 
of important papers are often taken by photography. 
If a building or a bridge falls, and persons hurt by 
it mean to bring a lawsuit, they often find it conven- 
ient to take a photograph showing exactly how it 
appeared at the time. 



V. — AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCHMAN: 
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 

T T 7E often read of a person's being condemned 
* upon u circumstantial evidence." What is 
circumstantial evidence ? All readers know what is 
meant by " direct testimony." When Guiteau was 
tried there were Mr. Blaine and several other persons 
who testified that they were at the depot at the time, 
and saw Guiteau fire the pistol shot at President 
Garfield. This is an instance of direct testimony, 
which consists of statements of witnesses who saw 
the crime committed. 

Often, however, persons committing crimes take 
care not to be seen. In such cases the detectives 
and policemen collect all the facts or circumstances 
that can be learned about the offence or the person 
suspected, and if these circumstances are such as 
to show that no one but he can have done the deed, 

43 



44 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

and that he must certainly be guilty, he may be pun- 
ished, although no one saw the act done. Evidence 
which consists of collecting various suspicious facts 
and connecting them together to prove a person 
guilty, is called " circumstantial. " 

A very interesting story entitled "The Goldsmith 
of Padua " is probably founded upon a trial of a 
Frenchman who, about a century ago, came near 
being hung for counterfeiting upon circumstantiar 
evidence. Various persons to whom he sold goods 
complained that he came to them and charged them 
with having paid him in counterfeit money, and made 
them take back bad gold pieces which he said he had 
received from them, and give him good ones in ex- 
change. At length this happened with one of his 
customers named Harris, who had paid Du Moulin 
seventy-eight pounds in gold pieces. When the pay- 
ment was made, Du Moulin said that he thought 
some of the gold pieces were bad, but Harris assured 
him that all were good, and he accepted them. A 
few days later, he brought six counterfeit pieces to 
Harris, and said : 

"Here are six of the coins you paid me. They 



AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCHMAN. 45 

are counterfeit. I wish you to take them back and 
give me good money." 

Harris examined the coins, and said : 

" I am positive that neither of these was in the 
money I paid to you." 

But Du Moulin answered : 

" These are some of the very coins I received from 
you. I put your money in a drawer by itself, and it 
was kept locked up there until I came to pay it away, 
when these pieces were found to be bad. I am posi- 
tive they are the same." 

There were some lawsuits between them, the result 
of which was that Du Moulin swore positively to hav- 
ing kept the coins locked by themselves all the time, 
and that Harris was compelled to replace the in. 

The real explanation was that Du Moulin had in 
his employment a clerk who was one of a party of 
counterfeiters. This clerk had procured a false key 
to his master's money drawers, and was accustomed 
to visit them at night, put in a few counterfeit pieces, 
and take out an equal number of good ones. But 
neither Harris, nor Du Moulin, nor any one else had 
the least suspicion of this. 



46 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

Harris, who was very angry, believed that Du 
Moulin was secretly a counterfeiter, and that he had 
contrived the plan of charging his customers with 
paying in false money, as an ingenious way of get- 
ting the coin which he made exchanged for good. 
He made a complaint. Du Moulin's drawers were 
searched, and behold ! a good deal more bad money 
was found, together with some counterfeit tools. 
Then every one believed that Du Moulin was guilty.' 
He was tried, and upon this circumstantial evidence, 
was found guilty. He could not explain how the 
money and the tools came to be in his drawers. But 
very fortunately the wicked clerk was detected just in 
season to save the master's life'; and he confessed his 
contrivance for exchanging his counterfeits, and that 
when he heard that the officers were coming to search 
the drawers, he put in some of his tools to make the 
circumstantial evidence against his master stronger. 

This illustrates one great danger in trusting to cir- 
cumstantial evidence. It is that possibly some mali- 
cious person may have contrived the suspicious cir- 
cumstances in order to throw guilt upon the accused 
man. 



AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCHMAN. 47 

In the days of highway robbers, the landlord of an 
inn was wont to ride forth at evening, and rob trav- 
ellers ; and one night a man whom he had just robbed 
came to his inn and told the people who were there, 
how he had been stopped on his way, and despoiled 
of a purse of twenty guineas. 

" But," said he, " my guineas were all marked." 

When the landlord, who was in the room, heard 
this, he trembled and turned pale, for he had paid 
away one of the guineas, and he thought : When the 
person to whom I gave that marked guinea hears of 
the robbery, he will disclose that I gave him the 
guinea. What shall I say then ? He forthwith 
plotted a case of circumstantial evidence against one 
of the waiters of his inn. He crept into the waiter's 
chamber and hid the purse and the nineteen guineas 
in the pocket of the waiter's clothes. He then told 
the gentleman who had been robbed this fictitious 
story : 

" My waiter has lately behaved suspiciously, par- 
ticularly in showing gold pieces which we do not 
know how he can have earned. This very evening I 
gave him a guinea to get it changed. He was gone 



48 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

a long time, and returned saying that no one would 
give him change. But the guinea which he gave 
back to me was not the one I had handed him ; it 
was marked as you say yours were. I did not think 
much about this at the time, and managed to do with- 
out the change, but paid away the guinea." 

After he had said this, the waiter's room was 
searched, and the purse and the nineteen guineas 
were found ; and in due time the man who had the 
twentieth brought it back, and corroborated the story 
that it had been paid to him by the landlord. Every 
one believed the poor waiter guilty, and he was hung 
for the robbery ; but about a year afterward the 
landlord confessed. 

There are accounts of a number of cases like this, 
in which a thief or an enemy has hidden stolen things 
in an innocent person's trunk or clothing, and then 
charged him with having stolen them. And even 
when there is no such malicious plot, it often happens 
that circumstances make a person appear guilty when 
he is innocent. 

There was a trial of a Mr. Mellon for poisoning his 
wife, but at the last moment it was discovered that 



AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCHMAN. 49 

she took the poison of her own accord, because she 
thought it would make her handsomer. This trial 
has been written as a novel called The Lata and the 
Lady, 

There was once an innocent man tried who was 
only saved by the fact that the real criminal was upon 
the jury, and he would not consent to a verdict of 
guilty. This trial is the basis of a novel called Live 
it down, 

Eugene Aram and Sir Theodosius Bought on are 
noted novels founded upon cases of false circumstan- 
tial evidence. 

To allow circumstantial evidence is absolutely 
necessary, for if it were prohibited entirely, nearly 
half the crimes would go unpunished. But experi- 
enced officers and lawyers are very careful how they 
trust it, unless it is very clear and strong. Still more 
ought we to be careful of believing persons to be 
guilty when we have only heard a story of suspicious 
circumstances ; for there may be some explanation 
which no one has suggested, but which will show the 
suspected person innocent. 



VL — MARTIN GUERRE AND ARNAULD DU 
TILH: PERSONAL IDENTITY. 

TV yTANY of my readers will remember the 
recent and very famous Tichborne Trial. 
About thirty years ago Roger Charles Tichborne, 
heir to the great Tichborne estates in England, went 
travelling abroad, and in 1854, set sail from Rio Jan- 
eiro for New York, but the vessel was lost at sea, and 
every one but his mother accepted the belief that he 
was drowned. Eleven years afterward a man whose 
real name was Arthur Orton, arrived in England, pre- 
tending to be Roger Charles Tichborne, and claimed 
the estates. He resembled Tichborne somewhat, 
and had in some way learned so many facts about 
Tichborne's life and travels that he could tell a very 
plausible story; and he deceived many people, includ- 
ing even Tichborne's mother. Two very lengthy 

and expensive trials were needful before it could be 

So 



PERSONAL IDENTITY. 5 1 

established that he was only a swindler. And even 
to this clay some persons doubt whether he is not the 
true Tichborne, and was not condemned unjustly. 

That a mother should be deceived into accepting 
a swindler as her son seems very strange, but there 
is a case stranger yet, in which an impostor deceived 
a wife into recognizing him as her husband. The 
true husband's name was Martin Guerre, and he was 
married to the lady, whose name was Bertrande, when 
they were only eleven and ten years of age. The 
affair occurred in France more than three hundred 
years ago; when such early marriages were allowed. 
The couple lived very happily for about a dozen years, 
when Martin Guerre suddenly disappeared. He was 
last seen walking along the road carrying a bag and 
stick, and apparently starting on a journey. People 
supposed that he had become tired of living at home, 
and had determined to travel and see the world. 
Nothing was heard of him for eight years. At the 
end of that time this Martin Guerre ( as all the towns- 
people supposed ) was seen coming back through the 
streets, recognizing his old neighbors and friends, 
and looking just as he used, except that he had grown 



52 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

stouter and somewhat sunburned, and now wore a 
heavy beard. He walked directly to his old home, 
where his wife recognized him as readily as the neigh- 
bors had done, and welcomed him very kindly; 
though he had deserted her so cruelly, she uttered no 
reproaches, but treated him affectionately. 

Of course every one asked Martin Guerre all sorts 
of questions as to why he went away and where he 
had been. He said that he became ashamed of know- 
ing so little of the world, and had therefore enlisted 
in the army; and he gave accounts of sieges and bat- 
tles in which he had been engaged. He also, in 
conversation with his friends, reminded them of many 
occurrences in old times which they had forgotten. 
To Bertrande in. particular, he rehearsed incidents 
of past years, and seemed perfectly familiar with 
everything that had happened. For instance, when 
they awoke on the morning after his arrival, he asked 
her to " bring me my white breeches trimmed with 
white silk ; you will find them at the bottom of the 
large beech chest under the linen. " She had long 
forgotten the breeches and even the box, but she 
found them just as he had described. How was it 



PERSONAL IDENTITY. 53 

possible to doubt that a man who came so naturally, 
who resembled Martin Guerre so closely, and who 
was so familiar with all the little details of Guerre's 
life, was in truth Martin Guerre. Yet he was not ; 
he was an impostor ; and his real name was Arnauld 
Du Tilh. 

Three years passed away before any one suspected 
the deception. It then happened that a soldier who 
had known the real Martin Guerre in the wars, 
passed through the village, and, upon seeing the false 
Martin Guerre, declared that he was a cheat. Then 
arose the famous trial to ascertain the truth. French 
trials differ from English and American in this 
respect, that it is common for the judge to question 
the accused very closely, endeavoring to convict him 
by his own admissions. The false Martin Guerre 
was interrogated day after day in the most searching 
manner; but he answered all questions, and no one 
could detect error in any of the answers. For 
example, he gave correctly all details as to his 
marriage, naming the persons who were present, and 
the priest who officiated, describing the arrangements 
and the dresses, and giving the smallest circum- 



54 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

stances without hesitation or mistake. After having 
questioned him, the courts went onw r ard to examine 
witnesses. The general result of two long investiga- 
tions was that more than forty witnesses declared 
positively that the accused was really Martin Guerre ; 
among these were four sisters and two brothers-in- 
law of Guerre, and many other persons who had 
known him intimately before his disappearance. 
These witnesses described a number of personal 
peculiarities and marks upon the real Guerre, all 
which were found upon the accused. Upon the 
other hand about forty-five witnesses were very certain 
that the accused was not Martin Guerre, but was 
Arnauld Du Tilh, whom many of them knew very 
well. All the while the accused continued to meet 
the witnesses against him with perfect composure and 
confidence, and to answer all questions frankly and 
correctly. And upon the whole, the judges were 
scarcely able to decide ; they thought that the testi- 
mony was so nearly balanced, and that the man 
appeared so well, that they could not find him guilty. 
It is a very important rule of law that every person 
accused of crime must have " the benefit of the 



PERSONAL IDENTITY. 55 

doubt," if there be a reasonable doubt, of his guilt. 
If an accused person is innocent, or if the jury or the 
judge doubt whether he is innocent or guilty, he must 
be set at liberty ; he can be convicted and punished 
only when there is clear proof that he committed the 
crime charged against him. In this case the proof 
was not clear, but was very conflicting and doubtful ; 
and the judges were about to give the prisoner the 
benefit of this doubt and therefore acquit him. 

But just before such decision was rendered, the 
real Martin Guerre returned to the town. He recog- 
nized his old home, his neighbors, relatives and 
friends, as his predecessor had done ; inquired for 
his wife, and on being told that she was attending 
the trial, which was proceeding in another town, he 
went thither and presented himself in court. Strange 
to say, the accused man was not disturbed, but main- 
tained his claim and story as calmly and positively as 
ever, declaring that the new-comer was an impostor 
who had been hired to appear by those who were pros- 
ecuting the trial against him. And, stranger yet, he 
seemed to be able to answer questions about the past 
life of the Guerre family more minutely and accurately 



56 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

than the second claimant was able to do. But when 
the .witnesses who had believed him to be Martin 
Guerre, were asked to look at the new-comer, they 
pronounced in his favor, retracting their former testi- 
mony. Thus the four sisters recognized him posi- 
tively, and the oldest of them, after a moment's 
glance, burst into tears and embraced him, crying, 
" This, this, is my brother, Martin Guerre ! I con- 
fess the deception which that monster practised upon 
me for so long a time." Bertrande, also, who seems 
to have been sometimes of one opinion, sometimes 
of another during the trial, immediately admitted that 
she had been deceived, and declared unhesitatingly 
that the new-comer was her true husband. The two 
men were placed side by side and compared. The 
resemblance was astonishing ; the old French re- 
porter says : " Two eggs do not resemble each other 
more than did these two men." But upon the new 
testimony of the witnesses, now disavowing the 
accused, the judges convicted him, and he was put to 
death for his fraud. Before his death he made a 
confession, saying that some intimate friends of 
Martin Guerre, misled by the resemblance, had 



PERSONAL IDENTITY. 57 

accosted him by that name ; which gave him the idea 
of claiming Guerre's position and property ; and that 
he had gained his intimate knowledge of Guerre's 
life partly from Guerre himself, whom he had known 
slightly in the army, and partly from various acquaint- 
ances of Guerre. 

There have been other very curious trials in which 
the question has been to identify a person who 
claimed to be some one else. There was once a 
Marchioness de Douhault, who died, and was buried 
with funeral services in the church, but three years 
afterwards a lady came to the chateau, claiming to 
be the Marchioness, and declaring that the funeral 
was a fictitious one, and that she had been all the 
while kept in an insane asylum by her wicked son, in 
order that he might enjoy the property. She looked 
so much like the Marchioness that at first she was 
received with much rejoicing, but afterwards there 
was a trial and the decision was against her. There 
were several men, at various times, wlio pretended to 
be Louis XVII., the dauphin of France, whose death 
was officially announced in 1795, but was always 
involved in mystery, and is a very interesting and 



58 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

perplexing topic in the history of France ; neither of 
them, however, met with any substantial success. 
There was once a man named Mege who pretended 
to be the son of a family named Caille ; and a hun- 
dred and ten witnesses who had known the true 
Caille before he died, swore that Mege was he. One 
hundred and ninety-nine witnesses, however, testi- 
fied to the contrary. These prevailed. 

Only a few years ago, in New York City, a lady 
complained to the court that a brother of her dead 
husband had taken charge of his property and was 
managing it as his "administrator," but would not 
give her a proper share. The brother answered that 
the husband was not dead, but had authorized him to 
manage the property as he was doing ; and he brought 
into the court room a man who declared himself to be 
the husband; but the wife, however, denied it 
very positively. Everybody was very much perplexed, 
and there was a long trial. But before it could be 
completed, the lady died. 

The novels Griffith Gaunt and the Missing Heir 
are founded upon real trials where the question was 
' who is who ? " or a puzzle about personal identity. 



VII. — DE BERENGER AND COCHRANE: 
SWINDLING. 

TN the days when the struggle between the great 
•*■ Napoleon and the sovereigns who had allied to 
conquer him was drawing towards a close, all England 
was intensely anxious for the earliest news from the 
seat of war. This anxiety was highest among busi- 
ness men in London, for the English government had 
borrowed immense sums to be used in prosecuting 
the war and would be made very poor by a defeat of 
the allied armies. 

The " stocks," or "funds/' as the large investments 
of money in England were called, would rise in price 
very much if the allied armies should be victorious, or 
fall greatly if Napoleon should conquer. But there 
were no telegraphs then, and the newspapers were 
small and feeble compared with those of our time ; 
accordingly the Londoners, eager as they were for 

59 



60 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

intelligence, were dependent on such reports as might 
be brought by persons returning from the scene of 
the conflict. 

Early one morning a stranger dressed in a peculiar 
military uniform arrived at a hotel in Dover (which 
is on the coast of the English Channel, opposite 
France), aroused the landlord and servants to. give 
him some refreshments, and told them that he had 
just come from France, and that Napoleon had been 
defeated and killed in battle. From Dover he wrote 
letters announcing this news. He then travelled to 
London, spreading the intelligence ; and soon after 
his arrival a postchaise drove through London streets 
carrying men dressed as French officers, wearing blue 
coats with white linings and white cockades, who, as 
they rode, threw from the windows of the chaise 
little pieces of paper telling the same story. At first 
people readily believed it; the "funds" rose rapidly 
in price, and speculators who bought early realized 
large profits. But very soon the story was found to 
be false. It was what is called a " hoax," ingeniously 
contrived to enable those speculators to make money. 
Napoleon was not dead, nor even defeated; and the 



SWINDLING. 6 1 

pretended French stranger was a mere swindler. 
The people who had lost money by the swindle 
naturally made an investigation. They ascertained 
that the stranger who brought the false news was 
named De Berenger; that when he arrived in Lon- 
don, he visited a Sir Thomas Cochrane, at the resi- 
dence of the latter, and came away wearing a black 
coat and hat, instead of his French military attire ; 
and that Sir Thomas and an uncle of his were among 
the persons w r ho had made money by the hoax. 
These circumstances gave rise to a belief that Sir 
Thomas and his uncle had devised the plan, and had 
hired De Berenger to assist them, by starting from 
Dover as if he had just landed from France, and 
bringing the false news ; and that De Berenger's visit 
to Sir Thomas was to enable the two to consult. Sir 
Thomas, his uncle, and De Berenger, with some other 
persons, were brought to trial for swindling, and were 
convicted. Sir Thomas was imprisoned for a year, 
fined a thousand pounds, expelled from the House of 
Commons, and otherwise disgraced. Thus we see that 
persons who can be clearly proved guilty of cheating 
or swindling are liable to severe punishment. 



62 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

In this instance the proof, although it seemed clear 
at the time, was probably erroneous as to Lord 
Cochrane. He always denied having had anything 
to do with the swindle. When he was asked about 
the mysterious visit, he said that De Berenger came to 
him saying nothing about Napoleon, but complaining 
of being very poor and begging for aid in gaining 
some appointment or employment. When asked 
about De Berenger's change of dress at his house, he 
said that De Berenger borrowed the hat and coat 
from him in order to make a better appearance when 
calling on other people in search of business. When 
asked about the profit he made by the hoax, he 
showed that the business was managed by his broker, 
without his saying, doing, or knowing anything about 
it ; moreover, that the profit realized was very little, 
and that he easily might have made five or ten times 
as much if he had been in the secret. 

Gradually people became convinced that his story 
was true and that he had been unjustly condemned. 
He became very popular for this reason, though he 
was not a man of amiable or popular manners. His 
constituents re-elected him to Parliament. The com- 



SWINDLING. 63 

mon people made a great subscription of a penny for 
each person, to repay his one thousand pounds fine, 
and at last government formally restored him to the 
honors of which he had been deprived under the un- 
just verdict. 

He became, in England, a rear-admiral, and also 
Earl Dundonald ; and in South America, where he 
served several years after his troubles arising from 
the great hoax were over, he was appointed to high 
naval command, and was created Marquis of Mar- 
anhao. 

I have read that a few years before his trial he fell 
in love with a beautiful young lady who was endeav- 
oring to get an education, but was poor. He supplied 
money for her expenses at boarding-school, and after- 
wards was married to her; and although they were a 
contrast — " she young, sprightly, handsome, gay ; 
he old, homely, stiff, serious " — they lived very affec- 
tionately and happily together for about forty years. 
He lived to be about eighty-five years old, and when 
he died, which was in i860, he w r as honored by a 
burial in Westminster Abbey. 

It may be that some of my readers will find some 



64 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

information about swindling useful to protect them 
from being cheated. There are, unhappily, many- 
persons scattered through the country who are busy in 
contriving and practising swindles ; and a young per- 
son who has been educated to be honest and indus- 
trious is perhaps more liable on that very account to 
be deceived ; for he does not imagine that people can 
be so dishonest as sometimes they are. For example, 
every one understands that merchants are accustomed 
to advertise the goods they sell in the newspapers ; 
and that a person living in a distant place can order 
what he wishes to buy by means of a letter, and have 
it sent to him by the express ; and that the express- 
man will receive the price and carry it back to the 
merchant. A vast amount of honest buying and sell- 
ing is done in this way. Swindlers take advantage of 
the system in various ways. Sometimes they adver- 
tise watches or jewelry extraordinarily cheap, telling 
some plausible reason why the price is so low. One 
man advertised to sell a watch as good as ordinary 
two-hundred-dollar watches for four dollars! savinq; 
that he had the benefit of a new way of making gold, 
just discovered. Sometimes they advertise a "gift 



SWINDLING. 65 

enterprise," or a " distribution " of piano-fortes, sew- 
ing-machines and other valuable articles among all 
who will purchase tickets. 

Their plan is to send to you by express a parcel 
which looks as if it might contain whatever you wrote 
for, directing the expressman to collect the price. 
When the expressman brings you the parcel, you will 
naturally give him the money ; indeed he will not de- 
liver it without ; and he will be gone before you will 
have time to examine your bargain. And you will 
find — if you are dealing with a swindler, not with an 
honest merchant — that the article inside is not worth 
half what you have paid, perhaps is not worth any- 
thing. 

In one swindling trial the story was that a boy who 
bought a ticket in a gift enterprise received a notice 
that he had drawn a prize worth five hundred dollars, 
on which he was to pay twenty-five dollars. He 
borrowed the money and paid it to the expressman ; 
but when he opened the parcel, behold ! there was 
nothing within but old newspapers and sticks of wood. 
To get one's money back in such a case is usually 
impossible. The express sends it at once to the 



66 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

person from whom the parcel came; and he takes 
good care that the persons whom he has cheated 
shall not be able to find him. If, for instance, you 
send or go to the street number of his store, as given 
in his advertisement, you will learn that no such per- 
son has any store there ; the swindler has some cun- 
ning arrangement for getting letters without being 
known. 

Young men who visit the large cities in search of a. 
business are often swindled by advertisements of a 
" Clerk wanted," or a " Business for sale." The 
swindler has a room fitted up with what appears to 
be a stock of goods, and gives a glowing account of 
his business and prospects. He wishes a cashier or a 
partner, but expects that the person whom he hires 
will deposit a few hundred dollars as security that he 
will do his work faithfully or as part of the capital. 
Or he wishes to sell out on account of poor health, or 
because he has another store, and cannot manage 
both. But, if you give him the money, he will disap- 
pear and you will find the drawers, boxes and barrels 
have nothing in them of any value. 

During the past ten years many persons have been 



SWINDLING. 67 

swindled by make-believe brokers who have adver- 
tised to take small sums of money and make great 
profits on them by speculations in Wall street. Their 
circulars described the best methods of speculating;, 
and offered to take small sums from anybody, lump 
them in one large fund, speculate with it, and divide 
profits with those who contributed. They even 
promised to guarantee that there should not be any 
losses! 

But if you send money in answer to such offers, no 
profit will come. When you write asking questions 
no answer at all will be returned, or you will receive 
a letter explaining that by reason of very extraordi- 
nary circumstances there was a loss in the particular 
speculation ; but you had better try again, as it is 
impossible there should be a loss the second time. 
Usually the make-believe broker sends this sort of 
answ r er to his dissatisfied customers as long as he can 
persuade them to wait, but when they complain to 
the police, and the officers search for him, he changes 
his name and removes to another city. 

To speculate in Wall street in any way is danger- 
ous ; to send money to brokers who advertise to 



68 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

guarantee that it will not be lost, is simply throwing 
it awav. What are called " confidence men " have 
very ingenious ways of cultivating acquaintance with 
strangers, winning their confidence, and imposing 
upon them by some plausible story. 

There is an account of a wealthy American who 
was invited by a very pleasant, gentlemanly man 
whom he met to take dinner at a restaurant. The 
gentlemanly stranger affected not to understand 
French very well, and became involved in a discussion 
with the waiter about the bill ; whereupon another 
gentlemanly man, overhearing the trouble, drew near, 
volunteered to assist, and by his better knowledge of 
the language, settled the difficulty pleasantly. This 
led to a conversation in which the new-comer said 
that he had inherited from a relative who was very 
fond of the Americans, a large estate, on the condi- 
tion that he should send twenty thousand dollars to 
be distributed among the poor in this country. 
Swindler No. i suggested that the gentleman whom 
he had brought to dine with him was an American 
and would perhaps take charge of the money. 
Swindler No. 2 said he should be happy to make that 



SWINDLING. 69 

arrangement if the American gentleman could ex- 
hibit a corresponding sum to show that he was 
respectable and trustworthy. 

And the American was actually induced by this 
story to come the next day, bringing several thousand 
dollars in bank notes to prove that he deserved to be 
entrusted with the twenty thousand dollars. The 
swindlers easily contrived to get it into their hands 
and ran away with it. In large cities, and in travel- 
ling, it is very difficult to know how to avoid persons 
who are trying to make acquaintance for the purpose 
of cheating, while you are courteous and kindly 
towards honest and respectable strangers. Perhaps 
the best protection against such swindles as I have 
described is to be really honest and industrious ; to 
be ambitious of earning your money by genuine work, 
and willing to pay a fair price for whatever you 
buy. 

If the American traveller in Paris had not desired 
to get twenty thousand dollars for nothing; if the 
customers of the advertising brokers had not wished 
to get profits of speculation without running any cor- 
responding risk ; if the boy who subscribed to the 



70 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

gift enterprise had not hoped to get five hundred 
dollars' worth for only twenty-five dollars, the devices 
of the swindlers would not have attracted them, and 
they would have saved their money. 



VIII. — ANDRE AND MACKENZIE: COURTS 
MARTIAL. 

T T 7HEN persons in ordinary civil society are to 
* * be tried for a crime, it is considered very 
important to give them a trial by jury. A " jury '"con- 
sists of twelve men chosen by lot from the reputable, 
trustworthy residents of the part of the country where 
the offence w r as committed. The twelve hear the 
witnesses and lawyers' speeches, the judge explains 
to them the law, and they are then shut in a room by 
themselves, where they discuss what has been said, 
and vote. Whenever all are agreed to say " guilty " 
or " not guilty," they return to the court-room, and 
the chief juror or "foreman " announces the decision. 
There are very strict laws for securing to every ac- 
cused person a trial by jury, and for making sure that 
the jurors are honest and impartial. 

That the jurors should be the social equals of the 
7i 



72 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

accused has always been deemed a valuable element 
in the privilege of trial by jury. In England, where 
people are classed as "lords" or "commoners," if a 
lord is charged with an offence, he is not tried by a 
jury of commoners, but by the House of Lords ; for 
the saying is, that every one has the right to be tried 
by his peers ; that is, by his equals. In America 
there are no lords ; a Senator or Representative may 
be tried by his neighbors, for the saying in this coun- 
try is, that " all men are born equal." Yet there have 
been some laws that a foreigner or that a negro should 
have the right to have some persons of his own country 
or race summoned on a jury which is to try him, in 
order that the trial may be by his equals. 

It is interesting to know that trials in the army or 
navy are conducted on the opposite principle. A sol- 
dier or sailor is not tried by his equals, but by his 
superiors in rank. Why there is this difference would 
be hard to explain 9 One would think that if trial by 
a jury of equals chosen by lot were a natural, valuable 
right, soldiers and sailors should enjoy it ; but they 
do not. Probably the army and navy could not be 
managed with efficiency if the officers were obliged to 



COURTS MARTIAL. 73 

submit every charge of disobedience of orders, mutiny 
and other offences to the decision of some of the 
equals of the accused. Therefore military and naval 
trials are by " court-martial ; " that is, by a board of 
officers not chosen by lot, but appointed by the com- 
manding general ; and usually of higher rank in the 
service than the accused person. In time of war 
persons who are not soldiers are often tried in the 
military manner, instead of by a jury. 

To illustrate this difference, I shall give a brief 
account of a military and a naval trial. Every reader 
knows the story of Major Andre. When Benedict 
Arnold, during the Revolutionary War, was planning 
his treasonable surrender of West Point to Clinton, 
the English general, the latter sent Major Andre' to 
Arnold to discuss arrangements and bring papers ; 
and he was caught while on his return, going in a 
false name, wearing a disguise, and carrying the 
papers hidden in his boots. These circumstances 
made him a spy. It is not considered necessary in 
war to give a spy a formal trial, therefore Andre's 
fate might lawfully have been decided by General 
Washington alone. But Washington chose to order 



74 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

a military trial. Instead of choosing a jury by lot 
from among people living in the neighborhood of 
West Point, and thus, perhaps, drawing several 
Tories who would have been sure to vote " not 
guilty," he selected army officers, six major-generals, 
one of whom was the famous Marquis de Lafayette, 
and eight brigadier-generals. Besides these there 
was, as there always is in a court-martial, a " judge- 
advocate," whose duty it is to conduct the prosecu- 
tion, and explain the law to the other members of the 
court. The name of the judge-advocate in the trial 
of Andre was John Lawrence. This board of fifteen 
officers assembled at Tappan in New York. Andre 
was brought before them, was shown the letters and 
papers which had been taken from him, and was 
asked what explanation or defence he had to give. 
His story was heard, but it amounted to a confession 
that he had come within the American lines secretly 
and in disguise to obtain information for the British 
general ; and the board reported to General Wash- 
ington that by the laws of war he should be hung as a 
spy. 

A trial of another man by court-martial followed — 



GOURTS MARTIAL. 75 

was commenced on the next day after the examination 
of Andre. The accused was a lawyer living in the 
neighborhood of West Point, who was accused of 
having assisted Arnold in his interviews and arrange- 
ments with Andre. The court was composed of a 
colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, a major, and nine cap- 
tains, with John Lawrence again as judge-advocate. 
On Andre's trial it seems not to have been thought 
needful to call witnesses as he did not deny the 
facts ; but upon Smith's trial many witnesses were 
examined, among them two of the men by whom 
Andre was captured, who gave a minute account of 
the circumstances of the arrest. These witnesses 
clearly proved that Mr. Smith had rendered Arnold 
considerable assistance, that he accompanied Arnold 
on one or two of his expeditions to negotiate with 
Clinton, that Arnold and Andre' were at Smith's 
house conferring together, one night, that Smith fur- 
nished Andre with the suit of clothes he wore as a 
disguise, and aided him in starting on his way back, 
and similar matters. But the board doubted whether 
Smith knew, at the time, that Arnold was plotting 
treason ; he might, they thought, have supposed he 



76 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

was obeying lawful orders and assisting Arnold in the 
performance of duty; therefore they acquitted him. 

Two remarkable naval trials arose out of the mis- 
conduct of a midshipman named Philip Spencer, on 
board the brig Sowers, in 1842. The commander 
of the vessel was named Mackenzie. He learned 
from Wales, the purser's steward on board the "ship, 
that Spencer was plotting a mutiny. Wales' story 
was that Spencer had told him that about twenty of 
the crew had agreed to seize the vessel, kill Com- 
mander Mackenzie and other officers, and sail the 
ship as a pirate; and had asked him to join. Spen- 
cer had also said that he had a. memorandum in 
secret writing of all the details of the plan, and of 
the names of those who were in the secret. They 
intended, he said, as soon all was ready, to start a 
make-believe fight among themselves upon deck, and 
the officers, when they interfered, would be seized 
and thrown overboard. Upon hearing this disclos- 
ure, with many particulars, Commander Mackenzie 
directed that Midshipman Spencer should be arrested, 
which was done. The culprit's " locker " was then 
searched, and in his razor case were found papers 



COURTS MARTIAL. 77 

written in Greek characters, which appeared to con- 
tain lists of names such as Spencer had described to 
Wales. 

For two or three days after the arrest, the Com- 
mander kept Spencer in confinement, hoping to be 
able to carry him to port for trial ; but at length he 
became suspicious that the other mutineers were pro- 
ceeding with the plan. He arrested two more, and 
put the three in irons ; but this did not seem to quiet 
the difficulty. Indications of an intended mutiny 
increased, and the commander became satisfied that 
his vessel was in clanger. He decided to have such 
a trial as he could under the circumstances. If he 
had selected jurors by lot, probably several of the 
mutineers would have been drawn, and, of course, 
they would have voted " not guilty." He called a 
council of seven officers and midshipmen whom he 
knew he could trust, laid all the facts before them, and 
asked their advice. They heard the stories of Wales 
and some others, examined the Greek documents, and 
decided that the prisoners had been guilty of plotting 
a dangerous mutiny, and that the safety of the ship 
and of the innocent persons on board demanded that 



78 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

they should be put to death. Accordingly they were, 
during the same day, hung. 

' This trial, like the examination of Andre, was not 
strictly a court-martial, for both Washington and 
Mackenzie acted, finally, on their own judgment and 
responsibility, the councils being called only to advise 
them. But when Commander Mackenzie's vessel 
reached home, he was tried before a formal court- 
martial on the accusation of having committed 
murder by hanging the three prisoners. His council 
argued that there were strong reasons for believing 
that a mutiny was in progress, and the vessel and the 
lives of those on board were in danger; and that 
when such is the case, a commander, if he cannot 
safely carry the offenders home, may put them to 
death. The judge-advocate contended that as no 
one had actually done anything mutinous, the com- 
mander should have been more patient : that he was 
bound to endeavor to carry the prisoners home. 
The court decided in the commander's favor. Prob- 
ably the fact that the members of the court were all 
officers in the navy, would have some tendency to 
cause such a decision. 



IX.— ELIZABETH CANNING: DIRECT TES- 
TIMONY. 

TN a previous chapter I narrated some trials 
A illustrating the danger of trusting to Circum- 
stantial Evidence. This month's article will show 
that Direct Testimony is often untrustworthy. 

The trial of Elizabeth Canning is a famous exam- 
ple. About a hundred and thirty years ago Elizabeth, 
then a girl of eighteen, was employed as a domestic 
in an English family. One New Year's day she 
asked leave to spend the holiday with her uncle; her 
mistress consented, and she went. Night came, and 
clays followed, but she did not return. It was mean- 
time ascertained that she made the intended visit at 
her uncle's and that her uncle and aunt accompanied 
her part of the way back in the evening; but beyond 
this no trace of her could be discovered until the 
very end of January, when she appeared at her 

79 



80 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

mother's house, emaciated, pale, weak, evidently 
almost starved, scarcely clothed, and showing a recent 
wound upon her ear. "Why, Elizabeth ! where have 
you been? What has happened?" and many like 
questions were poured upon her. Her story was — 
and the reader should understand that she had always 
borne a high character as a blameless, trustworthy 
girl — that, after parting from her uncle and aunt on 
New Year's night, she proceeded towards hec 
employer's home, when she was attacked by two 
men who robbed her of what money she had, stripped 
off her gown, and dragged her along the road for 
some distance, to a house into which they carried her. 
Here she was taken in charge of by a " tall and 
swarthy" old woman whom she thought she heard 
called " Mother Wells !" This woman shut her up 
in a " longish, darkish " room, which Elizabeth 
described particularly, and here she was kept confined 
with scarcely any food, until the day of her return 
home, when she contrived to escape through the win- 
dow; but in so doing tore her ear. 

There was some little corroboration of her story ; and 
there was a house in the neighborhood she described, 



DIRECT TESTIMONY, 8 1 

kept by a landlady named Wells; therefore the 
police carried Elizabeth to this house, and here she 
showed them the room in which she said she had 
been confined, and pointed out the board nailed 
against the window against which she declared she 
hurt her ear. 

The police then collected the inmates of the house 
in one room and asked Elizabeth if she could identify 
the woman who had kept her imprisoned ; but instead 
of designating "Mother Wells," she pointed to an old 
gypsy woman sitting by the fire, and said " That old 
woman in the corner was the woman who robbed 
me." 

Then began the conflict of Direct Testimony. The 
gypsy arose from her seat, threw aside a cloak which 
had partly concealed her face, looked steadily at 
Elizabeth, and exclaimed, solemnly : " Me rob you ! 
I never saw you in my life, before. For God 
Almighty's sake, do not swear my life away ! Pray, 
madam, look at me in the face ; if you have once 
seen it before you must have remembered it," etc. 
And, sure enough, it was a face which could not well 
be mistaken for another ; being naturally very ugly, 



82 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

and also deeply scarred. But Elizabeth adhered to 
her story. 

" Pray, madam," said the gypsy, "when do you say 
I robbed you ? " 

"On 'New Year's day," answered Elizabeth. 

" Lord bless me ! " exclaimed the gypsy; "I was a 
hundred and twenty miles from this place then." 
And the gypsy's son who was present declared the 
same. But Elizabeth's story was so far believed that 
the gypsy and some other persons residing in the 
house, were brought to trial for imprisoning and mal- 
treating Elizabeth, and, chiefly on her testimony, were 
convicted. The gypsy called several witnesses who 
testified that on the New Year's day they saw her at 
places far away ; but they were disbelieved. But 
the judge doubted the correctness of the verdict. 
And many persons shared his doubts. Soon the case 
gave rise to great discussion throughout London. 
No less than three dozen pamphlets were issued, some 
espousing Elizabeth Canning's case, some taking 
sides with the gypsy. The famous novelist, Fielding, 
who was a London magistrate at the time, and had 
taken some of the testimony, wrote in favor of the 



DIRECT TESTIMONY. 8$ 

verdict ; and the painter Ramsay contended against 
it. There was a new and more thorough investigation, 
the result of which was that .Elizabeth was put upon 
trial in her turn, for having sworn falsely against the 

gypsy. 

On this trial so many more witnesses came for- 
ward to prove that the gypsy was in quite another 
part of England on the New Year's day, that the 
jury, though doubtingly and reluctantly, found Eliza- 
beth guilty. She was sentenced to be transported to 
New England, which was a punishment sometimes 
used in those days — it would not be deemed a very 
severe one now ! But there were many people who 
believed her to have been unjustly condemned, and a 
considerable sum of money was subscribed and given 
to her to make her exile comfortable. And to this 
day it is regarded as very uncertain whether her 
story of her long absence and of the gypsy's cruelty 
to her was true or false. On the one hand : what 
possible motive could she have for making up such a 
story, or how could she be mistaken about such a 
remarkable countenance ? On the other hand : how 
could so many honest witnesses be mistaken in declar- 



84 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

ing that the gypsy was in their part of the country at 
the time ? The truth will never be known. 

The truth of this particular case is no longer of any 
importance, but it is important that young persons 
should realize how difficult it is to depend even on 
Direct Testimony. Lawyers very early learn that if 
circumstances often deceive, so also witnesses are 
frequently untrustworthy. Lying witnesses are not 
the only ones who mislead. Every one knows that 
persons do sometimes come into court intending to 
swear to a fictitious story. This is the crime of per- 
jury ; and it is severely punished whenever it can be 
detected and proved. Just as Elizabeth Canning 
was transported for the perjury which the jury 
thought she had committed, so at the present day, 
any one who can be proved to have committed it, is 
sent to prison. But mistaken witnesses create even 
more difficulty than dishonest ones. And not only 
in lawsuits, but also in daily life every one needs to 
remember that it is not safe to depend too confid- 
ingly upon what is told us, even when the speakers 
mean to tell the truth. 

There, are several causes which embarrass persons 



DIRECT TESTIMONY. 85 

in narrating what they have seen, and therefore 
throw some doubt over all Direct Testimony. One 
is the great difference in the perceptive powers. 
One person can see very distinctly but does not 
hear well ; he will give a correct account of things 
visible, but he may err very much as to what was 
said in his presence ! yet may be unaware of the 
trouble. Another can hear perfectly, but is near- 
sighted ; he will be a good witness as to what was 
said, but not as to the appearance of things. Clouds 
or sunshine, fog or clear weather, noises in the 
neighborhood, haste and inattention, and various 
like causes make more difference than many persons 
know, in their power of perceiving accurately what 
is happening around them. One is often sure that 
a thing did not occur, because if it had he must have 
perceived it, when in fact it did occur, but he did not 
notice it. 

Forgetfulness prevents persons from giving accu- 
rate accounts ; especially of what was said. Few 
can remember minutely the words of even a brief 
conversation. Whenever any one repeats the lan- 
guage of another, it is safest to remember that very 



86 FAMOUS TRIALS, 

likely the repetition is not accurate; something may 
have been forgotten and omitted which would quite 
change the sense ; yet the witness may honestly sup- 
pose he is relating the matter correctly. And 
this fact is very curious, that many minds will mis- 
take an imagination of incidents for a memory of 
them. In recalling an event which took place a 
while ago, fancy suggests details which cluster 
around the principal fact, and seem really to have 
been parts of it ; and the person at length mistakes 
the images suggested by fancy for realities restored 
by memory. This is a fertile cause, not generally 
understood, of the errors which creep into Direct 
Testimony. 

Illusions may sometimes wholly deceive a person as 
to what he has seen or heard. These do not occur 
very often, but there is abundant evidence that they 
do occur, and it is often possible that a person who 
is relating something which he sincerely believes 
occurred in his presence, is, in reality, only describ- 
ing an illusion of the senses. 

When either of these causes of error cooperate 
with a bias or wish in the mind of the witness, his 



DIRECT TESTIMONY. 87 

narrative is almost sure te be perverted from the 
truth. * 

Suppose a person who dislikes another very 
much, is relating something which the other has 
done ; the dislike will greatly increase the proba- 
bility that details will be varied to the other's disad- 
vantage. 

Suppose, on the contrary, one is narrating mat- 
ters about a very dear friend j the sentiment of 
affection will tend to weaken recollection of unfavor- 
able details, and stimulate imagination of commend- 
atory incidents ; and the result will be a version 
which, though honest in intention, is quite erro- 
neous. 

In all the affairs of life, whenever we are called 
upon to depend upon the accounts given us by other 
persons, we need to consider carefully their powers 
of sense, of memory and of fancy, and their senti- 
ments or wishes, and to make allowance for there 
being powerful causes of error in these various fields. 
Especially is this important when unfavorable stories 
are brought to us about our friends and neighbors. 
Though the story-teller may be honest, there are 



88 FAMOUS TRIALS, 

many ways in which he may be mistaken. It is not 
best to form harsh judgments of the absent, even 
upon Direct Testimony which appears perfectly 
honest and convincing. Wait and hear the other 
side. 



X. — TRIAL OF MADAME RACHEL: SPURI- 
OUS COSMETICS. 

'HT^HE Rachel whose trial I am to narrate is not 
■*■ the famous actress of that name, but a noto- 
rious cheat who lived in London about fifteen years 
ago. Her original name was Russell, but after her 
marriage her full name was Sarah Rachel Leverson, 
and she used the middle name "Rachel" in her 
business of selling perfumery and cosmetics. The 
story is that in early life she had unusually long 
and beautiful hair, but in a severe fever the doctor 
who attended her was obliged to order her head 
shaved ; he, however, gave her a recipe for a prep- 
aration which he said would make it grow again. 
She recovered from the illness, and applied the 
preparation, when, sure enough, the hair grew won- 
derfully fast and long, owing, perhaps, to the virtue 

of the prescription, but more probably because of 

89 



90 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

its natural vigor. However, she commenced mak- 
ing the article for sale, and advertising that she 
would restore the color of gray hair. Soon she 
added other articles to her stock in trade, and in 
time established an extensive business. 

The law does not forbid making or selling cos- 
metics in an honest way, but it does forbid a dealer's 
cheating customers by spurious articles and false 
advertisements ; and this is what Madame Rachel 
was at length tempted into doing. She published a 
pamphlet entitled Beautiful For Ever, describing a 
great many washes and powders for making the 
elderly look young, and the plain, handsome. There 
were the "Circassian Beauty Wash," the "Magnetic 
Rock Dew Water of Sahara," for removing wrinkles 
(remember that Sahara is a sandy desert), the Ala- 
baster Liquid," the "Youth and Beauty Bloom," the 
"Medicated Cream," for rendering the hair black or 
chestnut brown, the " Royal Arabian Toilet of Beauty," 
arranged for the Sultana of Turkey and various 
European royal brides, price one thousand guineas, 
and ever so many more. Above all was the secret, 
costly process of "enamelling" the countenance, 



SPURIOUS COSMETICS. 9 1 

whereby it could be preserved from all the changes 
of life, and literally be kept " Beautiful for ever." 
No doubt many persons were cheated into buying 
these nostrums, but one who suffered severely was a 
Mrs. Borradaile. She was a widow, elderly, credu- 
lous, and worth about ^"5000. She became a cus- 
tomer at Madame Rachel's store, and Madame 
Rachel asked her why she did not have her face 
enamelled and be made " Beautiful for ever." She 
asked, ".What would be the cost ? " Madame Rachel 
said, "A thousand pounds." Mrs. Borradaile hesi- 
tated about paying so much, and, to persuade her, 
Madame Rachel told her a story of a nobleman 
named Lord Ranelagh who had seen her and fallen 
in love with her, and was very desirous of marrying 
her if only she were a little handsomer. She even 
introduced her to some one who called himself Lord 
Ranelagh, but it is not certainly known who or what 
he was. However, Mrs. Borradaile decided to be 
" enamelled." Then began the " treatment." There 
were baths, and washes, and powders, but no im- 
provement in beauty. However, the process was 
continued as long as the customer's money lasted. 



92 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

She paid Machme Rachel one sum after another 
until her little fortune of ,£5000 was gone, and ran 
in debt to her, beyond, yet did not grow beautiful. 
At length she realized that she had been, as she 
herself expressed it, "a lunatic." She made a com- 
plaint against Madame Rachel, who was tried for 
"obtaining money by false pretences," and was 
found guilty and sentenced to five years' imprison- 
ment. 

To illustrate how ingenious the dealer was and 
how easily the customer was deceived, I may men- 
tion that while the cheat was proceeding, Madame 
Rachel brought to Mrs. Borradaile several love-let- 
ters, one after another, which she said had been 
written and sent by " Lord Ranelagh." They con- 
tained many mistakes of spelling, and Mrs. Borra- 
daile expressed surprise that a nobleman should 
spell so badly. Madame Rachel explained that 
Lord Ranelagh had sprained his arm, and was 
obliged to employ an amanuensis, and the person 
employed was uneducated ! This seemed perfectly 
satisfactory to the deluded widow. 

American newspapers are full of glowing adver- 



SPURIOUS COSMETICS. 93 

tisements promising all kinds of benefit from various 
cosmetics and toilet preparations. Many of these 
articles, no doubt, have some merit, but in respect to 
several, when lawsuits over them have arisen, and 
the manufacturers and dealers have been summoned 
to tell in court how what they sold was made, they 
have been obliged to confess that the thing was a 
cheat and the advertisement a lie. In one instance 
a dealer began making and selling a toilet-water 
which he called " Balm of Thousand Flowers." It 
sold so well, that soon a rival dealer put forth a sim- 
ilar one called " Balm of Ten Thousand Flowers." 
The first dealer complained to the court that the 
second was imitating his goods and advertisements 
and so taking away his business. The court asked him 
what his " Balm " was, and what were the " Flowers " 
contained. He said that it was composed in part of 
honey, and that as the bees in gathering honey suck 
from every kind of flower in a large circle of coun- 
try, he considered that his article was very truthfully 
called " Balm of Thousand Flowers ! " When the 
judge heard this he declared he would have nothing 
to do with aiding or protecting either " Balm." He 



94 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

said that a dealer who is himself imposing upon the 
public has no right to complain of another for doing 
the -same. 

There was a similar lawsuit over a cosmetic which 
was advertised over the name of Fabian & Co., of 
London, as, "Meen Fun," the celebrated Chinese 
skin powder for restoring, beautifying and preserv- 
ing the complexion, patronized by her Majesty, the 
Queen. On the trial it was found that the article 
was not made in London, but in New York, and that 
Queen Victoria had probably never even heard of it. 
The dealers pleaded that it was the prevailing belief 
in this country (this was said about twenty-five years 
ago) that ladies' toilet articles of English or French 
manufacture were superior to any American, and 
they excused themselves on this ground for making 
the false statement of their label. But the judge 
decided that they were deceiving the public, and 
therefore could not have the aid or protection of his 
court. There was also the " Gouraud Oriental 
Cream " case. The original name of the inventor 
was Trust; but he adopted the name "Dr. Gour- 
aud " for his sign, advertisements and labels, and 



SPURIOUS COSMETICS. 95 

became so well known under this name that at 
length he had his name legally changed from Trust 
to Gouraud. His sons, however, kept the old name. 
Years afterwards they introduced an Oriental Cream, 
which they sold under the name Dr. Gouraud's 
Sons. Their father complained of this to the court. 
The sons said : " We are Dr. Gouraud's sons, there- 
fore our label is perfectly true." But the court said 
that they were using the label for the purpose of mis- 
leading buyers of their Cream to suppose that it was 
the father's original preparation which they sold ; 
and that this must be stopped* 

Advertisements of medicines abound in the news- 
papers, and circulars boasting of the beneficial ef- 
fect of some remedy and describing wonderful cures 
it has wrought are constantly appearing. To make 
and sell these medicines and advertise them thus is 
not unlawful, and even if the advertisement some- 
what exaggerates the merit of the pills or potions 
which it describes, or promises more than they will 
or can perform, the dealer cannot be sued for this. 
The law considers that the public should exercise 
reasonable care and common sense, and ought not to 



96 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

believe all that advertisements say. When, how- 
ever, there is any downright falsehood or cheating — 
when a person is induced to buy the article by gross 
deception which his using common sense or making 
proper inquiry would not enable him to detect, the 
merchant can be prosecuted. Even labeling a med- 
icine falsely, by accident or mistake, may give rise 
to a lawsuit. There was once a lady who was taken 
violently sick, and nearly died, after taking some 
medicine which the apothecary of the village had 
sent to her as " extract of dandelion." The doctors 
and lawyers examined what was left in the phial and 
found it to contain belladonna, which is a violent 
poison. They inquired of the apothecary and found 
that he had filled the prescription from a jar labelled 
Extract of Dandelion, which he purchased from a 
manufacturing druggist. Therefore he was not to 
blame. They then inquired of the manufacturer 
and learned that by some mistake in labelling the 
jars, some containing belladonna had been sent over 
the country by mistake for jars of dandelion. They 
then brought suit. The unfortunate manufacturer 
said it was an accident ; they meant to label the jars 



SPURIOUS COSMETICS. 97 

correctly and had no intention of selling a poison. 
But the court said that to mean well is not enough 
in selling dangerous medicines ; dealers are bound to 
label them correctly. And the lady recovered $800, 
to pay her for having been made so ill. The stories 
of these various lawsuits, if one were to read 
them, would show very plainly that there are many 
mistakes and a great deal of exaggeration, decep- 
tion and cheating in making and selling cosmetics 
and medicines, and that those persons are wisest 
who remain contented with their natural hair and 
complexions, and seek health by good diet and 
exercise, or by the advice and prescriptions of a 
trustworthy physician. Whoever trusts to advertise- 
ments in these matters will be likely to say, some 
day, with Mrs. Borradaile : " I think I must have 
been a lunatic." 



XL— TRIAL OF HOPLEY : CRUELTY TO 
CHILDREN. 

/ HP V HE question has always been perplexing how 
■ far police officers and judges ought to interfere 
with the management of children. The parents seem 
to be the proper persons to take care of children, and 
they usually have a natural instinct of affection which 
restrains from cruelty and neglect Next to the 
parents are the teachers to whose care children are 
intrusted by their parents ; and they are subject to 
the general directions which the parents give. For- 
merly it was thought best to leave the care of children 
almost wholly to their parents and teachers. But 
some have no parents ; some are too poor to go to 
school; some parents and teachers have shown 
themselves to be careless or even unkind, hence laws 
have been passed to make better provision for their 

safety and education. 

98 



CRUELTY TO CHILDREN. 99 

There was once in England a schoolmaster named 
Hopley, who had in his school a boy who was dull, 
and seemed to the master to be obstinate in neglecting 
his lessons. The master whipped the pupil once or 
twice, but this produced no change ; and he then 
wrote to the father, saying : " If the boy were my son 
I should subdue his obstinacy by chastising him 
severely, and if necessary, should do it again and 
again." The father answered : "I do not wish to 
interfere with your plan." The teacher then chas- 
tised the boy for about two hours so severely that the 
lad died the next morning. Of course, for such 
cruelty as this, the teacher was tried. His lawyer 
argued that punishing disobedient pupils in school is 
lawful ; but the judge said that only a moderate pun- 
ishment is lawful, and a moderate one would never 
cause death. The fact that the father consented was 
urged in defence ; but the judge said that a father 
cannot give or authorize an excessive chastisement. 
The lawyer argued that the teacher believed that the 
lad was obstinate, and that he himself was only do- 
ing his duty. But the judge said that his mistaken 
motive was no defense for using excessive and dan- 



100 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

gerous violence. So the teacher was found guilty. 

A very similar instance occurred about seventy-five 
years ago in New York State. The unfortunate pupil 
was a little girl of about six years. She could not or 
would not pronounce properly some of the words 
given out in the spelling-class and particularly she 
pronounced the word "gig" as if it were spelled 
"jig." The teacher thought that she refused obsti- 
nately, and he began punishing her to compel her/ to 
say the word aright. The truth probably was that she 
did not know the correct sound, or perhaps she could 
not make it; therefore he continued the punishment 
so severely and long that the child died a few days 
afterward. He was found guilty of murder. 

In Bengal there was once employed in the school 
of the English missionaries a schoolmaster named 
John MacRay who had two daughters. When his 
wife, their mother, died, his sister Helen became his 
housekeeper, and took charge of the girls. She was 
morbidly strict and severe in her ideas of how chil- 
dren should behave and of her duty in managing her 
little nieces. One would have supposed that as the 
girls grew older the rigor of the aunt's discipline 



CRUELTY TO CHILDREN. IOI 

might have relaxed, but instead of this her treatment 
of them became more and more severe ; their food 
was reduced to a mere porridge, their lessons and 
tasks were made excessively onerous, and the punish- 
ments inflicted for any fault or failure were even cruel. 
At length the youngest girl, exhausted with hunger, 
probably, was detected in stealing, as her aunt con- 
sidered it, some preserves. The aunt thought what 
the child said when reproved was impertinent, and 
commenced to punish her. She probably acted from 
a certain morbid sense of duty, at any rate there was 
no concealment; she even sent for the father to come 
in from his school. He remonstrated, but lacked 
courage to oppose his sister's imperious will, and she 
continued the punishment until the little girl died. 
Both aunt and father were brought to trial. The only 
defense which could be made for them seems to be 
that parents have a right to chastise refractory children 
and that if they act sincerely in doing so they are 
chargeable only with error of judgment, not with a 
crime. But they were found guilty, and sentenced to 
be transported for life. 

In different parts of this country there have been 



102 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

a number of trials of schoolteachers for harsh treat- 
ment of pupils, and the judges have said that mod- 
erate punishment for serious misconduct is lawful, 
but if the twelve men who are called to try a teacher 
feel sure that the punishment he inflicted was unreason- 
ably severe, he may be sent to prison. This may be 
done either when the pupil has been punished with- 
out having done anything very wrong or without being 
told what his fault w 7 as, or when the punishment has 
been barbarous in manner or too long continued. 

Such trials as these have shown, I think, that some 
parents and teachers who suppose they have author- 
ity to punish children in order to make them do 
right, are mistaken. A child may be punished (mod- 
erately) for having done wrong, and this probably 
will gradually teach him to do right. But undertak- 
ing to punish for the purpose of compelling a child 
to do what has been commanded — to recite a lesson, 
put playthings away, to confess a fault, or the like, 
— is a different and sometimes a dangerous thing, 
and is probably unlawful. At any rate, such trials 
have shown that there was need of stricter laws for 
protecting children from cruelty, not only in punish- 



CRUELTY TO CHILDREN. IO3 

ments, but in others things. And many have been 
passed within a few years. Some such laws require 
parents and guardians to send their children to 
school for at least some weeks in every year, so that 
the little things shall not grow up without at least a 
partial education. Others forbid managers of mines 
or factories from employing children who are under a 
certain age, or for more than a certain length of time 
daily, or at tasks which are deemed too hard or dan- 
gerous for their tender frames. Likewise, in some 
places, recent laws forbid that children should be 
employed to sing or dance in public exhibitions, or 
should engage in dangerous performances such as 
walking a tight-rope or riding swift horses in a thea- 
tre or circus. Then there are laws by which little 
children who are cruelly treated by their parents 
or guardians or have been deserted by those who 
ought to take care of them, may be taken in charge 
by police officers and carried to asylums to be fed, 
clothed and educated. And in some cities where 
friendless children are numerous, benevolent socie- 
ties have been organized to care for them and insist 
on the laws for their protection being obeyed. 



104 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

Some time since I gave you an account of 
the case of little Louis Victor who was rescued by 
such a society from a sort of asylum where he was 
slowly starving. In a great variety of such cases 
where persons who have the charge of a child are 
neglecting or abusing it and the child is actually suf- 
fering, a society, or any benevolent person willing to 
make a complaint, can almost always, under modern 
. laws, secure relief and protection. 

Is it unlawful to employ children to dance and 
sing, act parts in plays or perform in circuses and 
exhibitions? There are many shows and perform- 
ances in which there are parts particularly appropri- 
ate for children. Suppose, for instance, there were 
to be an exhibition of Dombey and Son, or of the 
Old Curiosity Shop ; how could the parts of Paul 
and Florence or Little Nell be filled by grown per- 
sons ? Many persons think that if the children 
employed in these plays and exhibitions are com- 
fortable and happy, if they are willing to perform 
and satisfied with the treatment and wages they 
receive, there is no cruelty, and the judges and 
police officers ought not to interfere. " Children," 



CRUELTY TO CHILDREN. 105 

they say, " have a right to work in ways which they 
like and their parents approve, to earn their living." 
The benevolent persons who have formed the socie- 
ties say that little children are not able to judge 
what employments are safe for them ; that exhibi- 
tions which keep them up late at night, require 
unusual and dangerous exertions, and involve them 
in the excitements of appearing in public, are un- 
wholesome, and are not less so because the child 
may enjoy the excitement and be pleased with the 
idea of earning wages. Also they point out that 
children who are kept busily engaged in rehearsals 
and practice and in evening performances, cannot 
have time and strength for attending school and 
acquiring a proper education ; and they have gath- 
ered testimony of many physicians who say that 
such employments are dangerous to the health of 
young children, and of some experienced and suc- 
cessful managers of public entertainments who say 
that the effect of allowing young children to take 
part in such performances, even as much as they 
sometimes like to do, is harmful in other respects. 
In New York, within a year or two past, there have 



106 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

been several trials to determine whether young peo- 
ple should be allowed to perform in public or 
whether they should be kept at home or in school 
until older. 



XII — JOAN OF ARC: WITCHCRAFT. 

A LL my readers of course know the gen- 
^ eral story of the famous French heroine of 
the fifteenth century, and have heard the familiar 
conundrum : What was Joan of Arc made of? Ans. 
Maid of Orleans. They have read how she grew up 
a plain and untaught country girl, during a time of 
quarrels and wars: how she came to believe that she 
saw visions of the Virgin and Saints, and heard voices 
commanding that she should go to the assistance of 
the king ; how she volunteered to lead the army, and 
served so bravely and successfully that the enemies 
of King Charles the Seventh were routed, and he was 
•crowned, and was established on the throne ; and, 
how in a later battle she was taken captive, and was 
afterwards tried, condemned and burned. They will, 
perhaps, like to know how it could be that so patri- 
otic, useful, yet modest and innocent a young woman as 

107 



108 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

she is described should be put to death as a criminal. 

To ascertain the exact truth about matters which 
occurred so long ago, is not easy. The name usually 
given to the heroine, " D'Arc " (written as if she 
were of noble family), is probably a mistake ; the true 
name is said to be Dare (in one word), and her 
parents were poor country people. There has been 
dispute whether she accomplished, in military affairs, 
anything more than to arouse the enthusiasm of the 
romantic French soldiers by the idea that a young 
and lovely woman, divinely inspired, was their gen- 
eral. One learned man has even doubted whether she 
was really put to death ; he thinks another person 
was deceptively burned in her stead. But accounts 
of her trial have been preserved which are quite 
explicit. 

Jeanne Dare, or Joan of Arc, was taken by French and 
English troops who were fighting as allies against King 
Charles the Seventh of France, and his forces. She 
seems to have been sold, as it were, by one military 
captain to another, and was held awhile at Rouen as 
an English captive ; but ere long a demand came 
from France that she should be tried for witchcraft. 



WITCHCRAFT. 1 09 

The king of England — very disgracefully, according 
to modern views — consented. Why that king of 
France, whom Jeanne had so signally assisted, did 
not interpose to protect her, is not easy to see ; 
perhaps he lacked moral courage ; possibly he shared 
the belief in witchcraft, then very prevalent, so fully 
as to think that even assisting him to attain the 
throne was criminal if done by sorcery. Probably a 
sovereign or general of the present day would repu- 
diate any person who should attempt to aid him in 
gaining victory by means of secretly poisoning the 
food or water of the opposite army, and would allow 
such person to be tried for the poisoning, notwith- 
standing the motive for it ; and King Charles may 
have regarded the charge that Jeanne had used magic 
arts in his behalf, in somewhat the same way. Then 
again the trial was not had in a court of law, or before 
the King's judges, but was conducted before eccle- 
siastics, the officers of the Inquisition, the chief 
manager being the bishop of Beauvois. The accusa- 
tion was a document long enough to fill several pages 
of this book. It charged Jeanne with having 
avowed that various saints — Gabriel, Michael, and 



IIO FAMOUS TRIALS. 

many others — had visited her from time to time, 
bringing commands and revelations from God, such 
as the order to volunteer to command the army, also 
to assume man's clothing, under which commands 
she had performed her military acts. According to 
the custom of the time, she was very harshly and 
unjustly interrogated by her judges, who used all 
ingenuity and severity to entangle her in contradic- 
tions or admissions. At length they announced their 
decision that she had invented the apparitions and 
revelations, that she was a superstitious sorceress, and 
that she must recant and submit to the Church, else 
she should be burned. According, to accounts of the 
trial they deceived her in various ways. Thus when 
she was urged to submit to the Church, she expressed 
a willingness to do so, and the judges wrote a short 
and simple paper of submission, which they read over 
to her. But she could not read or write ; and when 
the time for signing it came, they cunningly substituted 
a long confession of a great variety of misconduct, 
which she signed, supposing it to be the brief submis- 
sion which she had heard. This paper included an 
admission of guiltiness in wearing man's clothing and 



WITCHCRAFT. Ill 

armor, and a pledge that she would no longer do so. 
She signed it without really knowing what it con- 
tained. Soon after her jailers, at night, took away 
her woman's clothing and left in its place her mascu- 
line apparel, and she, having nothing else to wear, and 
not understanding the trick intended, put on the 
latter. The judges then called her to account for 
having broken her written pledge. She defended 
herself forcibly and touchingly ; but as her condem- 
nation had been determined, all she could say was 
of course useless. She was sentenced to be burned, 
and this cruel sentence was carried into effect. 

The absurd and superstitious folly of trying and 
executing people for witchcraft was not confined to 
France. The idea as to witchcraft seems to have 
been that a person could, by making some bargain 
with evil spirits, obtain supernatural powers of doing 
mischief of various kinds ; accordingly any one who 
had a mysterious illness or suffered any trouble 
which he or she could not understand, was apt to 
complain of some neighbor as a witch, and the 
charge was, of course, almost impossible to be dis- 
proved. For about a hundred and fifty years in 



112 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

England there were occasional trials for witchcraft. 
One famous case occurred before Lord Chief Justice 
Hale, who was in other matters a very learned, wise 
and humane judge, but who shared the common de- 
lusion as to witches. Two widow women, named Rose 
Cullender and Amy Duny, were brought to trial 
before him for bewitching children. Very absurd 
stories were related by the witnesses. One was that 
Amy Duny, in the form of a toad, had haunted one. of 
the children, but the mother by order of a witch 
doctor had cast the toad into the fire, upon which it 
exploded like gunpowder, and next day Amy Duny 
was found to be very badly burned. Another was 
that by their magical arts the witches had filled the 
bodies of some of the children with crooked pins. 
There were other charges of their having made the 
children sick, lame, dumb, etc. Chief Justice Hale 
told the jury that undoubtedly there were such things 
as witches, and that they had only to consider 
whether these children had been bewitched, and 
whether the prisoners were guilty of it. The jury 
found them all guilty. Next morning the children 
came to Judge Hale's house, all quite recovered, 



WITCHCRAFT. 113 

and they declared that they began to recover just 
after the verdict of guilty was rendered. This, 
which people nowadays would consider strong evi- 
dence that the children were either under an extraor- 
dinary delusion, or else were parties to a cheat and 
conspiracy, was deemed by the judge a reason for 
believing that the verdict was a just one. And the 
two unfortunate women were hung a few days after- 
ward. 

There were many similar trials, and historians 
have estimated that about thirty thousand per- 
sons suffered death in England on charges of this 
kind during about a century and a half. At one 
time an officer was appointed called the " Witch- 
finder." His method was to cast the suspected 
witch into a river or pond. If she sank, he pro- 
nounced her innocent ; she was, however, usually 
drowned. If she floated, he declared her a witch, 
and she was put to death. In Scotland, also, there 
were many of those trials, and a number of poor 
friendless creatures suffered death under the same 
superstitious belief. Neighbors who had mysterious 
diseases, or whose cattle died, or whose crops failed, 



114 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

or who had other calamities, could think of no better 
solution than that some decrepit, homely, friendless 
old woman was bewitching them ; and to detect the 
witch and put her to death was supposed to be a cure 
for. the troubles, whatever they were. It is lamenta- 
ble to think that the same cruel superstition prevailed 
for a short time in this country — even in Massachu 
setts. 

The early settlers who came from England dur- 
ing the time when the belief in witchcraft prevailed, 
brought it with them, and, about 1688, a great 
excitement on the subject arose, which continued for 
several years. In an early and noted case some 
children named Goodwin were believed to have been 
bewitched, and a poor, half-crazy Irish woman was 
tried and executed for the offence. The excitement 
spread until at length, in one year, twenty supposed 
witches were executed (one of whom was a clergyman), 
and as many as three hundred and fifty persons stood 
accused. 

Educated people, especially lawyers and judges, 
now understand that there is not really any such 
thing as witchcraft ; that is to say, there is no way 



WITCHCRAFT. 115 

possible of making compacts with evil spirits to ob- 
tain supernatural power of doing mischief, and no 
one could now be tried as a witch, though persons 
are sometimes tried for cheating by pretending to be 
possessed of magical powers, and obtaining money 
by professing to tell fortunes, recover lost money and 
the like by magic arts. What, then, are the uses of 
knowing about witchcraft ? One is to enable us to 
instruct uneducated people, of whom there are some 
who still believe in the " black art." Among the 
negroes in this country there are many who are 
superstitious in this respect, and a London paper 
of June, of this year, says that on the African gold 
coast fifty persons were lately burned to death for 
witchcraft. Missionaries are slowly teaching the 
barbarous nations better. Another use is to enable 
us to understand allusions in literature. In Shakes- 
peare's plays, for instance, witchcraft is often men- 
tioned ; and the beautiful poem by Whittier, the 
Witch's Daughter — Mabel Martin — could scarcely be 
understood by one who had not read some account 
of the trials for witchcraft in New England. A third 
use is to render us cautious how we trust too posi- 



Il6 FAMOUS TRIALS. 

lively to what we believe and do at the present day. 
It is conceivable that, three or four centuries hence, 
mankind will read accounts of how criminals were 
tried, found guilty and punished in our day, and ^i!l 
think them almost as strange and senseless compared 
with the better ways which will then be known, as 
trials for witchcraft now seem to us. 



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